3 182202461 2715

UN VERS TY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO

3 182202461 2715

SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA
AND HER TIMES

ST. CATHERINE OK SIENA

BY ANDREA VAXNI

SAINT CATHERINE
OF SIENA

AND HER TIMES

THE AUTHOR OF " MADEMOISELLE MORI "

WITH TWENTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

METHUEN & CO

36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

LONDON

First Published in 1906

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD .... i

CHAPTER II

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO . * . . 25

CHAPTER III
A THORNY PATH . / • * . . . SO

CHAPTER IV

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER ... . 75

CHAPTER V

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN . , . 93

CHAPTER VI

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS . . . . . 1 16

CHAPTER VII

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON . . . . . 135

CHAPTER VIII

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS . c . . . 157

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

PAGE

POPE AND SAINT . . . », ' . . 180

CHAPTER X

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE . . 2OO

CHAPTER XI

GATHERING STORMS

223

CHAPTER XII
A LAST JOURNEY .... .243

CHAPTER XIII

LAST DAYS IN ROME ..... 263

CHAPTER XIV
A GOOD FIGHT WON ....

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

ST CATHERINE OF SIENA .... Frontispiece
By Andrea Vanni

THE CHURCH OF SAN DOMENICO AT SIENA . . . 12

ST CATHERINE IN ADORATION .... 23

By Beccafumi

ENTRANCE TO THE ORATORY IN ST CATHERINE'S HOUSE

AT SIENA ....... 38

ST CATHERINE ....... 51

By Cozzarelli

ST CATHERINE CURES MATTEO DI CENNI OF THE PLAGUE 55

By G. del Pacckia

THE ECSTASY OF ST CATHERINE . . . . 60

By Sodoma

A LETTER OF ST CATHERINE ..... 69

ST CATHERINE'S HOUSE AT SIENA . . . .79

BRONZE RELIQUARY OF ST CATHERINE AT SIENA . . 90

ST CATHERINE RECEIVING THE STIGMATA ... 103

By Sana di Pietro

ST CATHERINE (ON THE RIGHT) IN ADORATION . . 115

By Gerolamo di Benvenuto

ST CATHERINE CHOOSES THE CROWN OF THORNS . . 123

By A. Franc hi

ST CATHERINE . . . . . , .136

From a picture by Francesco di Giorgio

STATUE IN WOOD OF ST CATHERINE . . . 151

By Neroccio Sandi

viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ST CATHERINE ....... 160

By Sodoma

THE SWOON OF ST CATHERINE .... 175

By Sodoma

ST CATHERINE PERSUADES THE POPE TO RETURN TO ROME 177
By Sebastiano Conca

RETURN OF GREGORY XL TO ROME ACCOMPANIED BY

ST CATHERINE ...... 191

By Niccolo Franchini

ST CATHERINE PRAYING FOR THE SOUL OF AN HERETIC 2o6

By Sodoma

ST CATHERINE ....... 2K8

By Lorenzo di Pietro Vecchietta

ST CATHERINE AND THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE

MISERICORDIA ..... 22O

By Sana di Pietro

STATUE OF ST CATHERINE ..... 236

By Neroccio

THE FOOT OF THE DEAD ST AGNES SALUTES ST CATHERINE 253
A PAGE OF ST CATHERINE'S MISSAL . . . 273

RELICS IN ST CATHERINE'S HOUSE AT SIENA . 287

LEFT — SCENT BOTTLE, LANTERN, AND STAFF-HEAD
CENTRE— VEIL AND HAIR ; SHIRT

RIGHT — SACK IN WHICH HER HEAD WAS BROUGHT FROM ROMK

ST CATHERINE'S HEAD AT SAN DOMENICO IN SIENA . 292
THE CANONISATION OF ST CATHERINE BY POPE PIUS II. . 295

SAINT CATHERINE
OF SIENA

CHAPTER I
A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD

IN the year A.D. 1348 Siena lay in the grip of the
Black Death. It had been brought some months
earlier to Genoa by certain galleys " full of the cor-
ruption of overseas," according to the chronicle of Agnolo
di Tura, who goes on to relate how " great pestilence fell
on the city, sent by Heaven in those accursed galleys,
because the Genoese had despatched them to the Turks,
and had committed cruelties on Christians worse than
those done by Saracens. For this reason the great de-
struction spread from town to town, and slew three parts
and more of all Christian folk. And the father scarce
stayed to look on the son, and the wife abandoned her
husband, for it was said that the sickness could be taken
by mere looking on those stricken, or breathing their
breath. . . . And none were found to bury even for hire.
Relations went not with the dead, nor friend, nor priest,
nor friar, nor were prayers said over them, but when any
died, whether by day or night, he was straightway borne
to a church and buried, covered with a little earth that
the dogs might not eat him. Ditches very great and
deep were dug in many parts of the city. . . . And I,
Agnolo di Tura, buried five of my children in one of

2 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

them with mine own hands, and so did many others.
. . . And no bell tolled, and no one wept for any matter,
for all expected death, since things went so that folk
believed none would remain, and many thought and said,
' This is the end of the world.' "

Some months before this terrible moment Lapa, the
wife of Giacomo Benincasa, a well-to-do dyer in the
ward of Siena known as the Contrada dell" Oca, or Ward
of the Goose, so called as some say from the flocks of
geese kept there, gave birth to twins, who were named
Giovanna and Catarina. The former lived but a short
time ; the latter grew up to be the pride of Siena, and
the most distinguished woman saint of the great
Dominican Order.

Early biographers, to whom all connected with St
Catherine seemed touched by the supernatural, regarded
her survival of the plague as the first of many miracles
connected with " la beata popolana," as the Sienese
lovingly call her, one of many fond names by which she
is known in her native city.

Of her childhood there is little to tell. Born on Palm
Sunday, she would certainly be carried on Easter Eve
to the Duomo to be christened, with all the other
children whose birthdays fell after Whitsunday in the
preceding year, for though sickly babies might be
baptised at home, the custom was to christen one and
all at Easter or Pentecost. Thus, while some were new
born, others would be almost a year old, as is shown
in the graffiti on the pavement before the Baptistery,
where some of the children are represented as infants,
while others hang back, or walk beside their mothers.
At one time there was but a single Baptistery for the
whole diocese, " conformable to the saying of St Paul,
' One Lord, one faith, one baptism,' " and even when
the extreme inconvenience of this arrangement caused

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 3

fonts to be introduced into country churches, all the
children of Siena were carried to the Duomo, as is still
the case. The first boy christened there in Catherine's
day was always called Giovanni, and the second, Martino,
after one of the patron saints of the city, while the first
girl was named Maria, after which the infants received
whatever names their relations chose.

Very curious they sometimes were. Noble families
who claimed descent from an ancient Roman stock
would take classic names, such as Ascanio, Scipione,
Tullia and Livia. The middle class often chose them
from romances of chivalry ; registers and pedigrees give
Alicander, Rinaldo, Biancafiori, Diamante, and others of
the same sort, together with names more difficult to
account for, such as Uscilia, Cameola, and Leggiera.1

The Benincasa contented themselves with every day
names for their twenty-five children, common sense rather
than sentiment distinguishing both parents. Lapa seems
to have been an active housewife, affectionate, but sharp-
tongued and imperious, with little sympathy for anything
beyond her own range of thought, but unwearied in doing
her duty as far as she saw it. Her hasty temper was
sometimes gently checked by her husband, who is de-
scribed by Catherine's confessor and biographer, Raimondo
da Capua, as " good, simple-minded, just, nourished in
the fear of God, and over and above other virtues, gifted
with gentleness and meekness of heart," severe only if
in that household of many sons, daughters, and apprentices,
any one spoke a loose or profane word. This he never
passed over, though an almost incredible licence of speech
prevailed among both men and women, and in spite of
the statute against blasphemy, imprecations were heard
on all sides such as shocked and grieved the right
thinking. So strongly was Benincasa's rule impressed

1 Zeekaner, " Vita privata del Dugento."

4 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

on his family that when his young daughter Bonaventura
married into one where oaths and coarse talk were
common, she drooped so that her husband, Nicolao, asked
the cause of her saddened looks. " I never heard this
kind of talk before," was her explanation, and to his
credit be it said that he accepted the innocent reproof,
and put a stop to light and profane conversation in his
house.

Some of Catherine's biographers assert that her family
were poor, but this was certainly not the case at her
birth. Lapa had money of her own, for we find her
standing surety for a son who hired a shop, and besides
what trade brought in, like most of his fellow citizens
Giacomo owned land. His " podere " was at some dis-
tance from the gates ; it later passed to a widowed
daughter-in-law, that Lisa so loved by Catherine, who
calls her " my sister-in-law after the flesh ; my sister in
Christ." The little property still bears her name.

Another proof that the Benincasa were in easy circum-
stances is found not only in the assertion of Raimondo,
who must have known all about it, that for their station
Catherine's family were abundantly provided with
temporal goods, but in the fact that no one who begged
at the Fullonica — the dyer's house — was ever sent empty
away. Though until after the Black Death there could
have been no great poverty in Siena, since almost every
one could pay an income tax, from that date there was
much want in the city, besides which outsiders came in
whose cottages had been burned by Freelances, and
their cattle driven off, or misfortune overtook some
home, and the strain on private charity was great Far
from being ill off, the Benincasa were so prosperous that
Catherine prayed they might become less so, for fear
their hearts should be set on earthly things, a prayer for
which perhaps they were hardly grateful when misfortunes

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 5

came and dispersed the family. Large as it was, it
became extinct rather more than a century later, and one
of the descendants of Giacomo Benincasa was supported
by the city.

He and his wife belonged to that race of plain, honest
citizens whom Dante praises,1 the salt of any city, sell
respecting and respected, sensible and religious, but, as
far as is known, there was nothing in the Benincasa to
account for such a woman as Catherine. Imagination
she may possibly have inherited from her maternal
grandfather, Muccio or Puccio di Piacente, a forgotten
versifier of the I4th century, but the ballata by him
which Crescembeni quotes in his " storia della Volgai
Poesia," addressed to a certain disdainful Gualtera, is
exactly like numbers of others by Trecento writers, with-
out a spark of originality. From both father and mothei
she would inherit the practical good sense which served
her so well, but in truth, like Dante and Leonardo da
Vinci and Shakespeare, she seems to be without spiritual
ancestry, nor any more than in their case did her genius
reappear in a later generation. In every way she was
accurate when she said, as she did more than once, " My
only teacher was God," words which are curiously like
those of an earlier mystic, the nun Mechtild in the
convent of Helfta, who referred all her knowledge to the
direct teaching of God, and in this and many other ways
resembled Catherine of Siena.

It is remarkable that one of so large a family should
have been so dreamy and fond of solitude as was
Catherine, especially as she led a free and happy life,
and that joyousness which never forsook her made her a
great favourite with the neighbours in her contrada, and
with her child contemporaries. Already she exercised
the gift which all felt who came in contact with her, that

1 Paradise, Canto xv. 11. 112-17.

6 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

mysterious, indefinable power, which for want of a better
word is called charm, a gift more powerful than beauty
itself, and far more lasting. Education she had none ; it
was thought objectionable even for girls in a much higher
class. " Set them to sew, not to read ; it befits not a
woman to know how to read, unless she is to be a nun,"
says Fra Filippo d' Aguzzari ; and San Bernadino, who was
born on the day of Catherine's death, and from whose
sermons so much of the views and tendencies of her
century may be gathered, says hardly less grudgingly,
"If thou knowest how to read, read good and holy things ;
learn the office of our Lady, and delight thyself therein."
" Dio ti guarda da nobil poverino, O di donna che sa
latino," * says the Tuscan proverb to this day. When, after
she was grown up, Catherine's efforts to learn to read and
write were crowned with a measure of success, it seemed
a miracle to those about her. There was of course no
thought of a girl of her station learning the accomplish-
ments of playing on the lute or harp, for which girls of
noble birth had masters when they came to a marriageable
age, making up for beginning late by taking lessons twice
a day, and, as San Bernadino declares, often having love
letters slipped into their hands by their teachers, a use of
reading and writing which went some way to justify the
general suspicion of feminine education.

As far as Catherine was concerned, she never attained
readiness of penmanship, and always dictated by prefer-
ence, but in her later life books were read to her, and as
a child she saw the paintings in the churches of Siena,
and learned the legends connected with them, and heard
discourses from the pulpit, and at that time painting and
preaching had great importance, standing in a measure
in the place now held by literature and the press, and
though preaching had very generally become dully con-

1 From a poor noble and a woman who knows Latin, Heaven keep thee !

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 7

ventional, and, in spite of the admonitions of Popes and
Councils, was much neglected, it was carefully cultivated
among the Dominicans and Franciscans, the former
bringing learning to bear upon it, and the latter using all
means to gain the ear of the uneducated. Catherine had
also other means of education. She would hear city
politics and the relationship of Siena to other towns,
friendly or hostile, discussed in her home, where her
brothers and the apprentices brought in news, and traders
came to do business with her father, and she listened
eagerly to the friars, always welcomed at the Fullonica,
and heard them speak of the need of reform in the
Church, the measures taken against heretics — Siena had
its tribunal of the Inquisition, which sat in San Francesco,
and ruled even beyond Sienese territory — of the desir-
ability of a crusade, and above all, the injury done to the
Church and to Italy by the absence of the Popes from
Rome.

Friars played a great part in Catherine's life from the
time when as a little child she would run out and kiss
the traces of their passing footstepss Her first Confessor,
Delia Fonte, was a relation, and partly brought up among
the Benincasa household, and a document still existing
shows that for benefits received, her mother's family had
a right to special prayers in one of their communities.
The respect shown them in the Fullonica speaks well for
the Preaching Friars of Siena, but they were not so well
treated everywhere. San Bernadino relates how a woman
flung the bread which he had asked for so hard that it
hurt him sharply, and that stale scraps were often tossed
contemptuously out of a window. In fact, that decadence
of the Mendicant Orders which Dante noted merely a
century earlier had become recognized. In early days
their influence had been entirely for good, and Sir James
Stephen justly asserts that " nothing in the histories of

8 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Wesley or Whitfield could be compared to the enthusiasm
which everywhere welcomed them, or with the immediate
result of their labours." One of the most unexpected
testimonies of their merit comes from high authority.
When a Consistory at Avignon loudly demanded the
suppression of the Preaching Friars, Clement VI. answered
with scorn, " And if the Friars were not to preach the
Gospel, what would you preach ? Humility ? You, the
proudest, the most disdainful, the most magnificent among
the estates of men, who ride abroad on your stately
palfreys ! Poverty ? you who are so greedy and set on
gain that all the prebends and benefices will not satiate
your avidity ! Chastity ? of this I say nothing ; God
knows your lives, and how your bodies are pampered
with pleasure. ... Be not surprised," he added, with a
shrewd guess at the cause of the outcry, " that the Friars
received bequests in the time of the fatal mortality, they
who took charge of parishes deserted by their pastors, out
of which they drew converts to their houses of prayer —
houses of prayer and honour to the Church, not seats of
voluptuousness and luxury."

Agnola da Tura must have written in too great bitter-
ness of heart to be just when he declared that no friars
were found to attend the dead and dying in the great
plague, for Bernardo Tolomei came down with his white-
robed Olivetans from their monastery among the olive
trees, and, with many of his community, died among those
whom they had come to nurse and comfort.

But though the fearless devotion of the Friars in Siena
and other places had re-awakened gratitude and admira-
tion, there was an increasing distrust of them. Many,
no doubt, were like Fra Niccolo Tino, " whose face was
like that of Moses, so did love and charity burn in his
heart when he washed the sores of the poor with warm
wine, or faced a cruel foe," or whose life ended as beauti-

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 9

fully as that of another, who after a life which was a long
hymn of love and goodness, feeling death approach,
thankfully knelt down, laying his tired head on the
Gospels, and so passed away. Others there were who
called high and low fearlessly to repentance, like Fra
Filippo da Aguzzari, or the Friar of Bergamo who caused
a great revival of religion, and led his following to Rome,
penitents " orderly and good, white robed, with red and
white hoods and a dove with an olive branch embroidered
on their breasts, and a silken banner, green and long and
wide, which was laid up in Santa Maria sopra Minerva
after he had preached to all Rome at the Capitol." All
those friars who were Catherine's friends were saintly
men, such as these, but yet the old fervour, the first
eager striving after holiness was dying out, and from the
Rhymes of Bindo Bonichi, urging the need of keeping
away from friars, no matter what habit they wore, " men
who one and all take the left way while praising the
right," and describing how in life, Avarice and Gluttony
held a meeting presided over by Satan to settle what
Friars each should have as vassals, to the chronicle of
Salimbene of Parma, himself a friar, we find the same
accusations, the same warnings to the laity to beware of
the Mendicants. Catherine herself in after years shared
the general view ; we find her writing to a young niece,
who had taken the veil, bidding her leave the church the
instant that her confession was made, and to avoid inter-
course with monk or friar, but as a child she could regard
one and all with happy reverence, and they had very
much to do with shaping her life and character. From
them she heard the praises of St Dominic, for it would
seem that those who came to the Fullonica were chiefly
of his Order — how he went about teaching and preaching,
how he abhorred heretics, how kind he was to his com-
munity, even leaving prayer to visit the dormitories, and

io SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

lay his mantle over any one who was cold, how careful
he was as to personal cleanliness and neatness. Her
after life shows how deeply she was impressed by what
she heard ; it is evident that she took Dominic for her
model, and that her mind constantly dwelt on his life,
divided almost equally between prayer and work, and on
his view that the ideal Christian life consisted primarily in
love of God and one's neighbour, and secondarily in
discipline, fasts, and ceremonies, not as meritorious in
themselves, but as aids in reaching an exalted spiritual
ideal.

Although Dante highly praises Dominic, he clearly
preferred St Francis, but Catherine was a woman, and
the robuster character of the Spanish monk appealed to
her. She constantly prayed in the church dedicated to
him, which overlooks the Contrada Dell' Oca, a great,
austere building which the architect was bidden to make
of the greatest possible size at the least possible cost,
with no piers to hinder the preacher from being heard
nor hide the congregation from him, for this church, like
that of San Francesco on another hill, belonged to the
Preaching Orders, and was for use, not beauty, since the
orders were " principally and essentially designed for
preaching and teaching, that they might thereby com-
municate to others the fruits of contemplation and procure
the salvation of souls." l Yet, changed and modernized
though both churches are, they have a solemnity and
grandeur which is most impressive.

Catherine's devotion to St Dominic and her desire to
lead a life under rule began very early, and as a little
child she planned that when older she would disguise
herself as a man and enter a monastery, an idea probably
suggested by the wild legend of St Euphrosyne, which
must have been familiar to the Sienese, since her name

1 Dominican Constitutions.

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 11

was often given by neighbours to the little girl on account
of her grace and 'gaiety. Another scheme was partially
carried out, namely to find a cave and lead a hermit life.
Hermits abounded in Sienese territory, and the self-
devotion of the Olivetans was still a recent thing. She
actually set out with this purpose, but with the practical
sense which was always combined with her mysticism,
she took a loaf of bread in case the angels should delay
coming to feed her. It would seem as if she surely
would have taken the path from her father's house which
leads past the dark arches of Fontebranda, in whose
waters the were-wolves reported to haunt certain streets
of Siena bathed to recover human shape, for but a little
way beyond rise wooded sandstone cliffs with miniature
caves just fitted for a child hermit. But instead she went
all the way to the now closed gate of St Ansano, a road
familiar enough, being the one which led to the house of
her brother-in-law Nicolao, who lived in the district
known as Vallepiatta, " because it was neither high nor
low, but pleasantly sloping." l She found her cave in
rocks some way below the high red walls of the city, and
stayed there till evening, happy in the belief that she had
reached the place where once dwelt the Fathers of the
Desert, but with coming night and its solitude her mood
changed ; she thought of the Fullonica, and of her
parents' grief when they could not find her, and became
convinced that God did not mean her to leave them.
To run home was obviously the right thing to do, and
she got back before any one had grown uneasy : she was
apt to wander, and her family had supposed her with
her sister. How in such times of street broils children
could be allowed to stray about is difficult to understand,
but that it was so is again shown by her returning from
Vallepiatta with no companion but her little brother

1 Bentivoglienti.

12 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Stefano on the evening when she had that first vision
which was followed by so many others.

The two had come to high ground whence they could
see San Domenico stand dark against the sky, and looking
up there Catherine seemed to see our Lord above it, in
mitre and pontifical vestments, accompanied by three
Apostles. Stefano, suddenly perceiving that she had
stopped behind, turned and saw her intently gazing at
the sky, and called her. She took no notice until he ran
back and shook her roughly, on which, weeping in childish
fashion and wrath, says her biographer Raimondo, she
exclaimed, " Oh, if you could have seen the beautiful thing
which I saw, you would not have done that ! "

And thenceforth she became much graver, and loved
to escape to quiet places where she could say her little
prayers undisturbed, or gather her small companions and
make discourses to which they listened as later did
crowds of grown-up people. Raimondo tells of miracles
related to him concerning her childish doings, but we
may conclude that these stories sprang up after she
became famous, otherwise her family would have regarded
her as marked out for conventual life, too holy, too blessed
by Heaven for aught else. Instead of this, by the time
she was twelve years old they were planning a marriage
for her, unaware that she had vowed herself to a heavenly
Bridegroom, and her mother was both distressed and
angered by her aversion to the project and her indifference
to her personal appearance. She was not beautiful ;
" nature had not given her a face over fair," Raimondo
admits reluctantly, but it was so bright and sweet, her
smile was so lovely, her expression so sympathetic and
frank — she always looked every one in the face, " even
though it were a young man " — in short she was so
winning that no one ever thought her anything but
delightful. See had a blessed gift of good spirits, sang

THE CHURCH OF S. DOMENICO AT SIENA

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 13

at her work, laughed with all her heart, could scold too
if necessary, and was most unlike the drooping, conventual,
nun-like figure which painting mostly gives as her likeness.
And she had one undoubted beauty in her long, golden
brown hair. Perhaps however it was not of the then
fashionable shade, such as Sienese ladies sought to attain
as their Venetian sisters did, by sitting on their roofs in
the blazing sunshine to bleach their locks, burning their
brains at the same time, according to Fra Filippo, who
denounces this folly in one of his terrible " Assempri,"
or else using a receipt still preserved in the public library
of Siena. It was this receipt that Lapa urged Catherine
to try, and when she refused, her much loved sister
Bonaventura was called in to persuade her to take more
pains to set off her person.

To some extent she yielded, but soon came to look
on the concession as such a falling away that never after
could she speak of it without tears, and when her confessor
pointed out that as she had not acted from any desire of
admiration, the fault was venial, the girl exclaimed in
deep distress, " What a ghostly Father is this who excuses
my sins ! "

The anecdote recalls Dante's comment on Virgil's
remorse for having let him linger on the road to purifica-
tion :

" O dignitosa coscienza e netta,
Come t' e picciol fallo amaro morso ! "

It was not the special failing over which Catherine grieved,
but because when she had set herself to give up worldly
things she should never let herself be drawn aside at the
very outset, and her remorse was deepened by the early
death of her sister, which Raimondo takes as a token of
divine displeasure. " Observe," he writes, " O reader,
how displeasing and hateful it is to God to hinder or
turn aside those who would serve Him. This Bonaventura

14 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

was in herself of very right life, both as to words and
ways, but since she sought to draw back to the world her
who desired to serve God, she was smitten of the Lord,
and chastised by a very painful death." He adds
however that through Catherine's prayers she was soon
delivered from Purgatory, but if such a point of view as
his was placed before Catherine, her grief for her sister's
loss must indeed have been cruel.

A time of tribulation for Catherine followed. Her
family were urgent that she should marry a man who
would be a useful connection, a plan, Raimondo observes,
prompted by the enemy of souls, and as, singularly
enough, she had no vocation for the cloister, her opposi-
tion to the married life which then seemed the only
alternative could only appear flat disobedience, and dis-
obedience to parents was then a high crime. In the
pathetic epitaph over Petrarch's daughter Francesca in
the Duomo of Treviso it is recorded among her merits
that she was " absolutely submissive " to her father.
And we need only read the chronicle of Salimbeni to see
to what perils unmarried girls were exposed, so that any
husband seemed better than none, besides which, sons
and daughters were still regarded as the property of their
fathers, and marriages were but a move in the game
which their elders were playing. Choice had usually
nothing to do with marriage on the bride's part, and very
little on that of the bridegroom. If love did enter in, it
usually brought tragedy, as in the case of Imelda
Lambertazzi, whose lover was slain with poisoned daggers
by her brothers : she sucked the wounds, and was found
dead on his dead body. Public sympathy was rarely
with the lovers. When Altobianco degli Alberti was
betrothed to Maddalena Gianfigliossi the two became
deeply attached, but the Alberti becoming involved in
political troubles, the engagement was broken off. For

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 15

five years the lovers remained faithful, though the girl
received very rough treatment from her father. At
length, seeing her health fail, he yielded, but " amid the
blame of the whole city."

Very occasionally a girl ventured to reject a suitor,
and San Bernardo tells of one whose aspirant came by
her brother's desire to inspect her. They certainly did
not attempt to set off her charms, for they brought her in
bareheaded and barefooted. " Does she please you ? "
they asked. "Much," was the reply. She looked down
on the small man from her stately height. " But thou dost
not please me," she said. It is probable that neverthe-
less she had to accept him.

When a couple had been united in the hope of
reconciling two families who had been at feud, the wife's
position was singularly difficult and painful, and at the
best there was generally indifference on both sides. Yet
usually the wife at least was faithful and a good mother,
nor were there wanting husbands as considerate as Pietro
Pettignano, whose prayers, Dante tells us, helped the
unamiable Sapia through Purgatory, and who used
" carefully to avoid causing his wife any annoyance,
saying to friend or customer when due at home, " Go in
peace ; my mistress awaits me." In Catherine's own
home she saw an affectionate and united pair, and her
respect for marriage is shown in her letters. There is not
a trace in them of that over exaltation of celibacy and
belittling of marriage which was so general in her time,
nor does she ever encourage a wife to desert her home
for the cloister. But for herself she would none of the
married state, though all her family brought pressure to
bear upon her, and to break her spirit she was allowed
no room of her own, was constantly and sharply
rebuked, and all the hardest housework was put upon
her.

16 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

That so loving a heart must have keenly felt the
displeasure of her relations cannot be doubted, but too
much must not be made of what her biographers are apt
to call " persecution." Domestic discipline was severe
then and long afterwards in all countries. Examples of
harsher treatment would be easy to find in England even
much later, witness Agnes Paston and Lady Jane Grey,
the one imprisoned in her room and beaten by her
mother for having plighted her troth without leave ; the
other systematically ill-used for no reason at all except
that severity was supposed to be wholesome for the
young. Catherine did not meet with exceptional
harshness. In that large household the women folk
must as a matter of course have helped in the daily
work, and she was remarkably strong until austerities
broke down her constitution. It is told that she could
run from top to bottom of the Fullonica — and the
steps are many and steep, — " with an ass's load on her
back."

Nor can her mother's efforts to check her austerities be
fairly called persecution, even if there were hasty words,
and possibly blows ; these are suggested as beneficial for
women in medieval sermons, and indeed are strongly
urged by Fra Filippo as due from husbands to wives who
paint their faces. But popular opinion was against this
form of domestic discipline. " Only asses should be
beaten," says Orlandino, and the " Tractate on governing
a family" lays down that with sons authority, not blows,
should be exercised, while servants should not be beaten,
but treated with kindness to make them loving and
faithful. After all, Catherine was Lapa's favourite child,
the only one whom she had nursed, for even in the class
of Popolani the bad habit of employing a Balia, or send-
ing babies out to be nursed, prevailed, as it unfortunately
still does, and to find that the girl forcibly kept herself

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 17

awake almost all night, ate hardly enough to maintain
life, and scourged herself cruelly three times daily,
once for herself, once for the living, once for the dead,
after the use of St Dominic, might well wring the
mother's heart. " Ah, daughter ! daughter ! " she once
exclaimed with what Raimondo calls a burst of carnal
love, " already I see thee dead. Without doubt thou
wilt kill thyself. Alas ! who has taken my daughter
from me ? "

And she would tear her hair and shriek with all the
violence of an Italian of the people, deaf to consolation,
and vehemently reproach the girl, who listened humbly
but unmoved, going cheerfully about her tasks, and
learning by the way the secret of leading a contemplative
life within an active one.

She was debarred from any place which she could call
her own, and a strict rule existed in Siena that the rooms
of married couples were for them alone and must not be
entered by other members of the family, a rule observed
in this Fullonica, though with so numerous a family, even
if the apprentices slept in the shop, as they probably did,
it is inexplicable how they were all housed. Stefano
however had a little nook of his own, and while he was
away at work Catherine found a refuge there where she
could pray undisturbed. At other times she went about
doing whatever she was bidden, and full of happy dreams
and fancies, as many a maiden has done before and since,
only hers were all of a spiritual life. While busy with
household work she would picture to herself that her
father represented our blessed Lord, her mother, Mary,
her brothers the Apostles and disciples, and that she
was working for them in the Temple, " so cheerfully
and gladly that the household wondered greatly
thereat."

Her father, watching her unperceived, saw this, and
B

1 8 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

became convinced that hers was no passing, girlish fancy
for a conventual life, and was prepared to let her do as
she would even before Catherine, encouraged by a dream
in which St Dominic bade her take courage and enter his
Third Order, called together all her family, and told
them how from childhood she had vowed to have no
earthly bridegroom. She must keep her vow even if
driven from her home.

All listened amazed by the courage and resolution
with which she spoke, " and tears came more readily than
words." Her father was the first to speak. " Heaven
forbid, most sweet daughter," he said, " that we should in
any way oppose God from whom comes your most holy
design. Therefore, since by long trial we have perceived,
and now know for certain, that you are moved by no
youthful fancy, but by the Holy Ghost, be free to keep
your vow," and, after bidding her pray constantly for her
kinsfolk, he added, turning to those present with all the
unquestioned authority of the head of a household,
" henceforth let no one trouble or hinder my most sweet
daughter in any way ; let her freely serve her Bridegroom
and pray to Him for us. Never could we find an
alliance such as this, neither ought we to lament if
instead of a mortal man we receive a God and a man
who is immortal." But Lapa could only answer by
tears.

The little room familiar to visitors to the Fullonica
was now given up to Catherine, and here, with one interval,
she spent at least three years in solitude, only broken by
visits from her confessor and her mother, who would not be
excluded, and sometimes insisted on her leaving the planks
on which she slept, and lie beside her on a comfortable
bed, but as soon as she was asleep Catherine would leave
her side and kneel in prayer, choosing if possible the
hours when the Dominicans in their monastery overhead

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 19

were sleeping, so as to fill up as it were the spaces
between their services.

In her cell she gave herself up to concentrated medita-
tion, such as is hard to realise in the present century,
with complex interests rushing in on every side. In the
1 4th century religion permeated the whole of life ; it was
the one great subject of thought and inquiry, orthodox or
otherwise, taking much the place intellectually as science
does now, and it satisfied not only Catherine's heart and soul
but also her strong intellect. Her austerities were ceaseless,
practised not only to bring her strong young body into
subjection, but because she believed that since we are
members one of another, her sufferings could help the
souls of others. Her view was that by the godly life of
one member, all the others were strengthened, but it
followed logically that the sins and shortcomings of each
react on all, a belief which made her own failings
exquisitely painful to her, and which explains her other-
wise incomprehensible self-accusations of causing mis-
fortunes and failures in the Church. The unseen came
very near her ; the ardent enthusiasm so early shown was
all centred on the supernatural ; visions of saints gladdened
her ; she believed that her Lord stood in her cell and
spoke with her ; she realised divine things with extra-
ordinary vividness, walking with God as His saints have
done from Enoch downward, but it is only honest to say
that no revelations are found in her visions ; she saw just
what it was natural she should see, and added nothing
original to the stock of spiritual knowledge. When as a
young child she was convinced that she saw Christ in the
sky He wore pontifical robes, the Pope being the
stateliest figure she knew by painting or description,
and in her strange and materialistic vision of St
Dominic it was natural that he should have the well-
known traditional features, though to the naive imagina-

20 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

tion of the Trecento it was a proof of the reality of
her vision.

Although Catherine had no inclination for the cloister,
she ardently desired to join the secular Tertiaries of St
Dominic, called Mantellate, from their black mantles, who
must not be confounded with the Servite Sisters, an
enclosed order with the same name. They were the
outcome of a lay order, founded by Dominic "to
combat heretical depravity, and defend the rights of the
Church " even at the cost of life. The members were
at first all men, often married, in which case their wives
swore never to hinder their work, and to forward it all
they could. At first the order was called " The Militia of
Jesus Christ," but when " that crowd of little foxes who
sought to ravage the vineyard of the Lord " were
exterminated by fire and sword and prison the need for
such open warfare lessened. The order however lived
on, and many women continued to join it, either of
mature age, or working with their husbands, or widows.
They lived at home and did not take the three ordinary
vows. At a later time these were taken, but after this
the number of members declined. They led a retired
life, at once contemplative and active, guided by a Prioress,
elected by themselves, who was responsible for them to
the Dominicans. There were about ninety in Siena when
Catherine was born, but some years later the plague again
swept the city, and forty of these devoted women died
while nursing the sick. Naturally, young girls were not
eligible among them, and Catherine's request for admission
met with a decided refusal. Why, they must have
argued, should an exception be made for the dyer's
daughter ? Jealousies would be aroused ; they would be
blamed as rash and partial ; the thing could not be, and
Lapa, who carried the request, did not plead very
heartily.

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 21

Meanwhile Catherine's health broke down. In the
absence of dates which are very rarely given by Raimondo,
it is very difficult to fix the time at which minor events
in her life occurred, and the difficulty is increased by the
vagueness of chronology in this century, Siena, Florence
and Pisa reckoning the New Years from Lady Day, Rome
and Milan from Christmas, while in Venice the legal
year began on March I st and the ordinary one on the first
of January.1 To add to the confusion, it is never certain
that any of these dates are exactly followed, but it seems
as if it were during the three years commonly supposed
to have been spent in her little cell that the interlude
came when her parents insisted on her accompanying
them to the baths of Vignona, both on account of
health and to see if indeed the world had no attraction
for her.

She went, but it must have cost a great effort to break
into her chosen life, and the gay and noisy scene must
have been most alien to her. It was characteristically
Italian. In other countries the middle class rarely left the
shelters of city walls, but in Siena nobles and popolani alike
frequented the baths and mineral springs near the town,
the rich travelling on horseback or some rough vehicle,
the aged and sick in litters, while the less well-to-do came
in carts drawn by reluctant buffaloes or the great mouse
coloured oxen with wide horns such as are still among
the beautiful characteristics of Siena.

Tents and rough lodgings sheltered the visitors, who
spent their time in bathing, the women in a place at some
distance from the men, with a high wall between them on
which the law required to be painted " in good colour " a
fresco of the Virgin, our Lord, St James and St Philip —
or in sleep during the hot hours, or listening to minstrels,
playing chess and backgammon, or hawking and hunting.

1 Burlamacchi.

22 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

No one was allowed to carry arms, a most necessary pre-
caution, but in the long, idle days not a few quarrels were
started or embittered which had tragic results when the
disputants returned to Siena, and there was so much vice
in these places that it is strange to find good people like
the Benincasa frequenting them, especially with a young
daughter.

Lapa's hope that Catherine would be attracted by the
gaities of the bathing season were vain, nor did her
health improve ; with an exaggeration of self-discipline,
which when older and more experienced she would have
condemned, she scalded herself with the water from a hot
spring, and returned home only to fall dangerously ill.
Lapa was much alarmed, and when Catherine assured her
that if she would not spare her to be a mantellata, God
would take her away altogether, the mother pleaded so
earnestly with the Prioress that four of the most discreet
among the sisters were sent to report on the girl, with a
promise that if not too pretty, she should be received
among them. They found her wasted and disfigured by
something like chicken-pox ; she answered their questions
with the utmost modesty and good sense, and was
accepted.

As soon as she was well enough she went with her
family to San Domerico, where, in the Cappella delle
Volte, she was blessed and invested with the cloak of
the mantellata, and returned, full of thankful joy, to her
cell.

Reaction followed, such as many a devout nun has ex-
perienced. Opposition over, the spirit is no longer roused
to combat, and she realises how much she has given up,
what a long stretch of monotonous days lies before her,
and if the sacred laws of health have been outraged, as in
Catherine's case, the struggle will be yet more violent.
She suddenly found herself beset with evil thoughts ; pro-

ST. CATHKRINK IN ADORATION

BY BECCAFUMI

A SAINT'S GIRLHOOD 23

fane words, such as she could never remember to have
heard, rang in her ears ; tempting visions, longing for
earthly joys, horrified and racked her ; temptation came
upon her to bethink herself that even now it was not too
late to have a glad life like other girls. Her cell seemed
swarming with fiends, one of whom she called Malatasca,
a name recalling Dante's Malabranche ; wild longings
seized her to run over hill and dale away from these fiends
and fiendish thoughts which pursued her even in church,
tempting her to despair. Her only refuge in this horror
of great darkness was to repeat, " I trust in my Lord Jesus
Christ, and not in myself."

Out of the depth she cried, seemingly unheard, she to
whom prayer had been such joy and strength ! But help
came. She had a vision of the Saviour, stretched on the
Cross, saying, " My own daughter Catherine, see'st thou
how much I have suffered for thee? be it not hard for
thee to suffer somewhat for Me." And she, all thrilled
by the loving words, " My own daughter Catherine,"
asked, "Where wert thou, Lord, when my heart was filled
with such impurity ? " and the answer came, " In thy
heart."

In the " Legenda " of Raimondo da Capua, which is the
main source of our knowledge of Catherine, a long dis-
course is given, supposed to have been spoken by Christ.
It could not possibly have been written down at the time,
and suggests, as in many other instances, either that her
vivid realisation of spiritual intercourse made it seem to
her literal fact (see her striking letter, No. XVI. in
Tommaseo's edition), or that it was a meditation, or
possibly that her biographer filled out her recollections.
That he did not feel tied to literal accuracy appears in his
alterations of expressions and phrases which Catherine
gave him to put into Latin, an instance of which is given
by Tommaseo. We have also to recollect that much of

24 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

the Legenda is composed from the lost notes of her con-
fessor Delia Fonte, a humble, good, unlearned man, in-
capable of consciously inventing anything about her, but
equally incapable of sifting evidence or weighing state-
ments, and these notes were used by Raimondo in the
spirit in which they were written.

CHAPTER II

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO

TO understand the character and history of St Catherine
of Siena it is necessary to realise her surroundings
and the influences amid which she grew up. But
to us who live in the 2Oth century the difficulty of doing
so is great. We are perplexed by the violent contrasts
which meet us at every step — unblushing vice and saintly
lives among both laymen and clerics ; unbridled extrava-
gance and frugal economy; lawlessness side by side with
submission to statutes which interfered with freedom of
action at every turn ; furious revolts and personal quarrels
filling the streets with uproar and bloodshed, and quiet
every-day occupations. There are usurers and gamblers,
religious revivals, when a crowd of two thousand persons
would stand for five or six hours listening to the appeals
and reproaches of a friar with every sign of contrition, and
on the other hand there was the scornful indifference
shown in the verses of a contemporary of Catherine's,
" Let the mad priests preach, with their small truth and
many lies." Chronicles and sermons of that day give an
appalling picture of shameless wickedness, prodigality and
crime, often apparently committed for crime's sake. There
were men like Giovagnolo, captain of the troops of those
Conti di Santa Fiore whose stronghold was on Monte
Amiata, and who brought yearly tribute to Siena, a man
" most evil, traitorous, perfidious, merciless and cruel
beyond all diabolical imagination, who took more delight

35

26 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

in slaying than did many wild beasts," and who would
not even make the usual death-bed confession, refusing to
listen to a priest, " since he still hoped to take vengeance
on several persons." There were others who did not
hesitate to remove an enemy by dagger or poison, a
means known significantly in England as " the Italian
crime," and though the story of thirteen Tolomei invited
to a banquet at a place still called Mala Merenda and
there poisoned, is probably mere legend, the fact that it
was believed, and the story handed down, shows that such
deeds were thought perfectly credible.

On the other hand Siena had so many holy men and
women that she has been called the ante-chamber of
Paradise. There was Nera dei Tolomei, who like
Catherine could read hearts, and foretold the Great
Schism, and the more famous Bernardo of the same
family ; Fra Filippo d' Aguzzari, whose sermons were a
trumpet of no uncertain sound, bidding the sinful and
luxurious see to their ways, and Bernadino, born indeed
in Massa, but closely connected with Siena, who must not
be confounded with another yet more celebrated friar of
the same name, but with the addition of " Ochino," being
born in the Contrada dell' Oca, a man who deserves a
better record than Gigli's in the " Diario Sanese," as one
" who would have left behind him great renown in litera-
ture and merit in the Church had he not blackened his
name by falling into the errors of heresy." Nor must we
omit Colombini, who " espoused most high poverty," and
preached with such effect that he was banished from
Siena lest the number who desired to become monks
should lessen the population too greatly, and — only no
one thought of that at the time — withdraw all the best
men into the cloister, leaving lay society without their
good influence.

Besides all these there were countless good and

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 27

religious people who led quiet and honest lives, leaving
no record beyond the incalculable effect which such lives
have on their own and on succeeding generations. Some-
times however we obtain a glimpse of them. It was
through the example of his wife that Colombini changed,
as Malavolti relates, " to the marvel of all the city from a
proud man to one most humble, from a seditious to a
pacific, from a miser to an almsgiver, and from a wolf to
a meek lamb," and repeatedly in Catherine's letters she
writes to mothers and wives who ruled their households
wisely and well and reaped their reward. Her own family
show the sound, healthy life in the middle class of Siena,
industrious and godly, keeping aloof as far as might be
from civil strife, yet taking due part in the affairs of their
city, or when Giacomo Benincasa accepted office in the
Government.

It is one of the problems hard to solve how it is that
every-day life goes on in times of revolution and unrest ;
yet it does. It did so in the very heart of the French
Revolution, when with the Terror prevailing, and no man's
head safe from the guillotine there still was marrying and
trading, and dancing and play-going, and it did so in the
Middle Ages in spite of violent changes of fortune and
the calamities involved by feuds all the more envenomed
because they were penned into such narrow bounds,
where families who had hated one another for generations
lived on opposite sides of the street and could never get
out of one another's sight ; when there were no intellectual
interests, and a man's country meant his native town.

Probably the dulness of life had much to do with the
turbulence and crimes of the time. It was distinctly dull
among the upper class, especially when they were excluded
from the magistracy. And the Sienese had a craving for
amusement, and were a light-hearted race ; their neigh-
bours called them crazy madcaps, an accusation rebutted

28 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

by Delia Valle, writing A.D. 1782. " I do not deny that
the Florentines are firmer and more constant in their
matters," he says with an acrimonious touch, which recalls
the long grudge between the two cities, a grudge by no
means dead even in a " united Italy," " but that comes
from their climate, or to speak plainly, from the heavy,
turbid air which oppresses them in the hollow where they
lie, while the greater quickness and light-hearted gaiety,
and the amenity of Siena comes from the pure and ever-
moving air which they breathe ; moreover, one can be
crazy (pazzo) either from extreme gaiety or extreme
seriousness, so the Sienese, in spite of the name given
them by the Florentines, have often reduced the latter to
receive laws and conditions of peace from them. Nor am
I sure that if the Florentines had gained the battle of
Monteaperto they would have shown such kindness of
heart as did the Sienese, who, content with what they
had gained, pardoned even the men of Montalcino who
had rebelled against their sworn fealty."

Not content however with calling the Sienese " pazzi,"
the Florentines taunted them with vanity, and when
Dante speaks of " vain folk " he is repeating a popular
Florentine saying, "Vainer than the French," and the
taunt rankled, for Tomasi, in his history of Siena, alludes
to him with amusing indignation as " a writer who pro-
ceeds very arrogantly to blame and praise all things after
his own manner, nor did it suffice him to deal with the
living, but he also spoke of those who are beyond man's
judgment, assuming more power than the fables of the
ancients gave to Radamanthus, by filling hell and heaven
with persons as pleased him best."

Certain it is that notwithstanding feuds, pestilences, wars
and popular tumults Siena was never long without amuse-
ments. The upper class hawked and hunted, and the
whole population, high and low, were passionately

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 29

interested in certain games which became so much of a
free fight that they had to be prohibited by law. Such
was Elmora, played with wooden swords and lances, and
pugna, so beloved of the people that it was played long
after an edict forbade it, in consequence of the number of
people killed and wounded when the players' blood got
hot, and fisticuffs no longer contented them as the old
rivalry between the Terzi, or triple division of the city,
blazed up. Siena is a Hill Queen, built on three heights,
with deep depressions between them, and the inhabitants
have their rivalries to this day, and keep distinct, though
they have long abandoned the costumes which distinguished
their male inhabitants, red for the Terzo di Citta, green
for San Martino, and white for Camellia.

Pugna was all the dearer to the Sienese because after
that great victory over Florence which dyed the Arbia red
and made the name of Farinata degli Uberti and his de-
scendants abhorred in Florentine ears, it was held to
represent the defeat of the rival city. Urghieri however
shows that it had a much earlier origin, writing thus,
" And that it may be known how this game arose in
Siena we must remember that our chroniclers say among
the streets of Siena there is one . . . where formerly
various things were sold, especially victuals, and even yet
the pork butchers keep food to sustain man, such as
cheese, sausages and so forth, though in process of time
traffic in nobler things has mixed with them. And when
people of the City ward passed that way, they were full
often hindered by others who would not that they should
come and sell in their district. From words they would
come to quarrelling, and from quarrelling to fisticuffs and
to battle, people running from every side to help their
own friends, and the conquerors carried off cheese, eggs,
hens and all that had given rise to the strife. This would
be chiefly in the last days of Carnival, when such things

30 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

are most consumed, and dearest. And these scuffles
were represented in Carnival as one of various games, all
forbidden except at that season, and in the Piazza. " —
namely the Campo, whose historic name has been changed
to the commonplace Vittorio Emanuele, with the incom-
prehensible indifference to ancient associations which
distinguishes modern Italian municipalities. " And at
that time it was lawful for any who found his adversary
to assail and strike him," but it was understood that even
if wounds or death ensued, no vengeance must be taken,
and for many years pugna was encouraged as making
men ready in war, and more disposed to fight for their
city. "And of this game heroically has sung the noble
poet Vittorio da Campagnatico of Siena."

Pugna and pallone have had their day, but the Palio
races survive, as all know who have visited Siena in July
or August. It is still an interesting sight, though shorn
of its mediaeval splendour. The races are said to have
been instituted in honour of the Virgin Mary, whose
figure appears on the banner (palio) which is the prize of
the winner, and from the excitement which they still
arouse, we can imagine how keen it was in Catherine's
day. " Every one takes the side of his own contrada,
(city ward), the wife, if not of her husband's, returns home
for that day to work or weep according to the success or
non-success of his banner. That day, the Sienese do not
eat, nor have they slept the previous night, but spend the
time in going from house to house, shops, streets, piazza,
to consult, take counsel, encourage one another, and
intensify the hatred between ward and ward. At the
hour of the race all the city is afoot, men, women and
children, old patricians, plebeians, peasants from ten miles
round come into the city. They crowd the platforms
erected round the piazza, terraces, windows, roofs and
towers. And while the horses gallop round for the first

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 31

time not a whisper is heard in all the crowd, but during
the second and third rise mingled shouts, everyone
encouraging and applauding his own rider, and cursing
the rival one, and when the horse reached the goal, a
great howl of joy from the victorious side fills the air.
Horse and rider are taken into the church of Provenzano,
where the latter is blessed, as were all the jockeys before
the race, and thence he is borne to the church of his own
ward, passed over the heads of the people from hand to
hand and set on the altar, while all the building echoes
with a great inarticulate thanksgiving."1

As a child Catherine must have seen the Palio run,
and shared in the anxiety that her Contrade d' Oca should
win, but in her time the races were run on foot.

Spring, summer and autumn each had its diversions,
but time must have hung heavily on the hands of the
upper class in the long hours of winter when out-of-door
occupations were uninviting. The merchant and artisan
had his business, or was engaged with the affairs of
his city, or went on journeys, but the noble, unless he
became a trader, as was often the case, had no sedentary
occupation, rarely travelled, and had no indoor amuse-
ments except chess, backgammon and zara, a game in
which at every throw of the dice a number was called out,
success depending on having chanced to name the ones
thrown. «..-•

" Quando si parte il giuco della zara
Colui che perde si riman dolente,
Ripetendo le volte, e triste impara,"

but he could only learn the imprudence of gambling, since
the game is purely one of chance.

Gambling was one of the great vices of Siena, and of
Tuscany in general, though mediaeval legends abound in

1 Aquarone, who maintains that the Palio took the place of Pugna after
Monteaperto.

32 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

warnings that gamblers will have their souls carried off
by demons, and their bodies dragged by them out of holy
ground. Was there not a soldier whose habit it was not
only to play games of chance, but to accompany each
throw of the dice with curses on all the saints of life
eternal and their heavenly Court, and did not two forms,
exceeding dark, suddenly appear and carry him off, body
and soul, to the place whence they came ? And was it
not seen by all present ? But such tales were beginning
to lose their effect in Catherine's time, and though
preachers still often used them, she never once alludes to
them in any of her writings.

Statutes were vainly passed to restrain gambling ; the
love of it was in the blood, and the Sienese threw away
their money on games of chance just as their descendants
do on the lottery. Intellectual interests were absolutely
wanting ; reading has never counted much in Italian
households, and in the I4th century books were scarce
and dear, existing of course only as manuscripts. In
certain homes there would be some religious works ; we
hear how the wife of Colombini offered him the " Lives of
the Saints " on one occasion in his unregenerate days to
fill up the time when dinner was late, and how he threw
it at her. A few women learned Latin enough to read
the Vulgate and the Fathers, but usually fathers and
brothers were suspicious of female education, a woman's
vocation being to look after her maids and keep the
family wardrobes in good order, taking especial care that
moths did not get into the clothes. She had also to lay
out carefully the money which her husband gave her for
household expenses, and submit to his better judgment in
all things. Though the cult of the Virgin was increasing
by leaps and bounds, and poets praised their ladies to the
skies, women counted for little in daily life. Agnolo
Pandolfini expresses the general view when he states

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 33

complacently that although his wife was endowed with all
graces befitting a gentlewoman, good habits, intelligence
and industry, all this came from his teaching and
discipline. Nor did he ever, under any circumstances,
tell her anything about his business, "for," he writes,
" much doth it displease me that any husband take
counsel with his wife," and on principle he never talked
with her on any matter but such as concerned his house-
hold. This was the burgher view ; we find the ecclesi-
astical in one of the earliest books in Italian, written by a
friar, one Fra Paolino, who quotes Theophrastus to
strengthen his position. A grievous thing it is, he
declares, for man to enter wedlock, for no one can attend
both to learning and a wife. Moreover it is no small
matter to satisfy her longing for costly garments, gold
adornments, precious stones, maids and divers other
things. And she is full of laments and says " Such a one
goes more fairly decked than I, and such another is more
honoured, while I, poor wretch, am despised by all. Why
do you talk with your neighbour, or the maid ? . . . A
grievous thing again it is to spend for a poor woman, and
a grievous again to support the pride of a rich one. And
there is nothing in which a man can be more lightly
deceived, for all others that he would buy he tries before-
hand, but till he has her he cannot tell if a wife please or
displease, and only after marriage can learn if she be
good or bad, meek or wrathful and so forth. Again, be
she ugly, hard it is to love : be she fair, hard it is to
guard her."

And though Petrarch sang Laura, no one could speak
more contemptuously of women than he does in several
of his letters meant for posterity. All the reverence for
woman set forth in poems of the time seems empty words
beside such views of her, and the advice in sermons to
beat a wife shows that such discipline was known, but St
c

34 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Bernadino uplifts his voice indignantly against it even
among the peasants, to whom his exhortations against
over-zeal in correcting their womankind of slovenly habits
seem addressed, since the pig to which he unflatteringly
compares them would not have been admitted to houses
of a higher degree. " How is it that thou considerest not
thy duty ? " he demands. " See'st thou not the pig which
always squeals and always clamours, and always befouls
thine houses, yet thou sufferest him till the time cometh
when he is fit to kill. This forbearance thou showest only
that thou mayest have his flesh to eat. Consider, thou
pitiful rascal, consider the noble profit of the woman, and
have patience. Not for every trifle should'st thou beat
her." However preachers and husbands regarded them,
the ladies in Siena seem to have had more freedom than in
many other places. In Venice during the fourteenth century
they were kept in almost oriental seclusion, rarely leaving
their palaces except on very special occasions, and often
hearing mass in their private chapels under their own
roofs so as to avoid going out of doors. In Rome too
they were hidden away with jealous care, quite needful in
that turbulent city, and were not even allowed to leave
their own part of their palaces, lest they should come in
contact with the fierce and lawless retainers and soldiers
kept by their male relations. Florentine married women
had much more freedom, but this did not extend to girls ;
as late as the middle of the sixteenth century Grazzini urges
that the music at Carnival time should be " large and
gay," and the processions as rich and beautiful as possible,
accompanied at night with torches so that all should find
pleasure in them, even the young girls well hidden behind
a shutter or curtain in their father's houses. In Siena
girls were less confined, and married women had con-
siderable liberty paying visits to neighbours, and chatting
to them from windows and balconies in the narrow streets,

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 35

while to this day no Roman lady would dream of appear-
ing even at a window except at the Carnival. And there
was the walk with fathers or husbands in the little Piazza
Prusierla or in the Campo, and the daily mass for the
religious, while one and all on a high day would go to the
fashionable church outside Porta Romana, where, it is
whispered, love letters were not unfrequently slipped into
the nosegays so respectfully offered by students and
soldiers.

When winter came and snow fell on window ledges and
balconies, the ladies rolled it into balls and flung them
across the street at one another, just as the boys were
doing in the street below, and there were public entertain-
ments where they went, but it had to be done openly and
frankly, for if a lady appeared there masked or veiled, the
officer appointed to watch over public morals — (a thank-
less task) — promptly asked her name, and to give a false
one was a grave offence.

Very much time was filled up by matters belonging to
the toilette. " You paint yourselves more than any women
I know," thundered San Bernadino, " not perceiving that
you spoil your looks and make yourselves hated of men,"
while for the ever changing fashions of hair dressing, he
cannot find words fiery enough to denounce them. Now
it was loose on the shoulders, now towering up like the
Mangia — we may be sure that he was preaching in the
Campo, under the slender and lofty tower of that name,
as he often did — or the locks were false, or stuffed out
with sHk, or else with hair from the tails of the great
Tuscan oxen, or he denounced the use of perfumes, needed
partly to conceal the woeful lack of personal cleanliness of
which not only peasants in their wretched huts, but the
upper classes were guilty. Baths were unknown, and the
minute washing basins on their tripods gave the measure
of water thought necessary then and later.

36 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

In common fairness the men should have been as
sharply lectured as the women, for the young fops of
Siena were not a whit behind Petrarch, who confesses in
one of his letters that in youth he had been painfully
anxious to look elegant, changing his attire morning and
evening, studying every fold of his robe, building up his
hair, and diligently avoiding any touch or hasty movement
which might spoil the effect. He owns too that he wore
shoes too tight for him, and often got burned by curling
irons.

Old pictures show how gorgeous dress in the Trecento
could be, but we must not suppose them worn in every-
day life. The dresses of a bride were rarely brought out
after her marriage ; usually they lay in the " cassa," the
great chests found in all old Italian houses, cupboards and
shelves being modern inventions in Italian bedrooms.
Clothes were regarded as things to be handed down to
the next generation, and were received as a welcome gift ;
a robe of scarlet cloth was an offering for a king, and
they are always carefully enumerated in inventories of
household goods. In a record existing in the Public
Library of Siena it is mentioned that at the knighting of
a young noble, his father wore a grass green robe, with a
row of golden buttons down to his feet, and that among
the many gifts given and received by the son the chief
were silken robes, lined with squirrel fur, and tied with a
silken cord, and another of green Douay stuff which
seems to have been especially valued, not to speak of furs,
hoods, caps and gloves. There was also a doublet
adorned with gold, a coverlet embroidered with shields —
probably the arms of the new-made knight, made of very
fine crimson cloth, and three pairs of stockings of stout
saye.

The extravagance in dress seriously preoccupied the
municipality, all of whom were probably husbands and

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 37

fathers, and had to pay the bills, and many statutes
were passed to check it. Now only a certain number of
gold buttons might be used on a lady's dress ; now un-
married girls must not wear cloth or velvet except for a
headdress or sleeves, nor might more than a fixed number
of yards of scarlet cloth be put into a gown for their
mothers, while no woman of the middle class was per-
mitted to wear a train. The archives of Siena record that
a heavy fine was imposed on the wife of a pork butcher
who appeared in San Cristofero with a long train to her
cloth dress. Her husband appeared before the magistrates
in her place, and pleaded that she had not wilfully broken
the law, but had carried the train in her hand or hooked
it up, and if it had trailed, she was unaware of it. The
plea was set aside, and the fine had to to be paid.

This is but one of the innumerable instances of the
way in which statutes interfered in daily life. It
aggrieved no one. A man was a citizen first and
foremost, a private individual only in the second place.
Personality was little recognised in the Middle Ages.
What concerned the city was all-important, and, as a
citizen, what touched him touched the city. This was
why at one time all betrothals took place publicly in the
Campo, before the Palazzo Publico. There was some-
thing of conventual rule both in public and private life.
Statutes regulated both. Until the Sovrana, the great
bell of the Duomo, rang at dawn no one might leave his
house, nor might the gates be opened to the country
people, coming to buy and sell, or to the belated merchant
who had had to camp with his laden mules outside the
city all night at the risk of being fallen on by robbers or
the wolves which lurked in the forests sweeping up to the
very walls, forests strictly preserved, as they were believed
to purify the air from the marshes, as well as supplying
wood for private use in various trades. Again, no one

38 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

might go out after Curfew rang from the Campo, at nine
o'clock in winter and ten in summer, and whoso was out
after dark must carry a wax candle, whose size was fixed
by law, a very sensible rule when there were no lights in
the steep and narrow streets winding among lofty palaces
and convents, except where an occasional lamp was set
before a shrine. The nobles usually were accompanied
by servants with torches ; humbler folk carried a lantern ;
the one used by Catherine when she went at night to
some sick bed is still kept in the Fullonica, so changed
from what it was in her time that it is almost impossible
to imagine the busy life in it, with Catherine in her little
room, praying or listening for the first sound of the
Sovrana, eager to carry help to some poor family, and
hurry back before she could be recognised.

Bells played a great part in daily life before there were
clocks. After the Sovrana had roused the city came the
one which at 7 A.M. announced that the Palazzo Publico
was open for business, and if the officials were not there
before the sound ceased, they were fined. The hours of
divine service were proclaimed by the bells ; the
" Misericordia " tolled when a prisoner was led to execu-
tion, and the sounds of bells called the citizens to
extinguish fire, or to fight.

Another measure of time was a candle, used in case of
emergency. When in the beginning of the fourteenth
century the furious enmity of the Tolomei and Salimbini
set Siena in an uproar, the magistrates put a lighted taper
in the Palazzo del Governo, where they then sat, and
made proclamation that if the men of the rival families
had not come to make peace before it was burned out,
they would be imprisoned and their property forfeited.
The same means was taken on a very different occasion
when the enemies of the saintly Colombini prevailed on
the magistracy to banish him on pain of death before

ENTRANCE TO THE ORATORY IN ST. CATHERINE'S HOUSE AT SIENA

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 39

a small candle was burned out. It was a common way of
meting out time to offenders. When Clement VII. was
induced to expel the Capuchins from Rome in 1534, he
ordered that one and all should leave the city before the
taper kindled as he spoke should burn down. On
receiving the command they instantly left the monastery
where they had been living, and taking only their
breviaries and a large wooden cross, went forth in silent
obedience. Among them was the Sienese friar Bernadino
Ochino.

The years following the birth of Catherine Benincasa
saw Siena unprosperous. Commerce had been severely
checked by the Black Death ; fortunes were lessening,
workmen scarce, and many of the wisest and best citizens
had died, leaving incompetent men to govern. For a
considerable time previous to the pestilence there had
been great prosperity, and the change was not immediately
apparent. Even private feud, and the jealous discontent
inevitable where a single class governed, and the measures
taken ignored the needs and desires of great part of the
population, seemed more or less dormant. Siena rose
to the zenith of her power, though even then, to judge by
the comparatively rare occurrence of her name in con-
temporary chronicles, she had little importance compared
with Genoa or Florence, Pisa or Venice. Yet she ruled
over two hundred towns, villages and castles, who yearly
sent tribute of banners and money and great wax tapers
to the Duomo, each deputy coming forward with his
offering as the name of the place he represented was
called by the Chamberlain of the Duomo from the marble
pulpit overlooking the crowd of farmers and villagers.
They stood side by side with the fierce Ardingheschi, lords
of Campidoglio and the Aldobrandeschi, who boasted that
they owned more towns and villages than there were days
in the year, a stock whence sprang Gregory VII., and who

40 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

nevertheless did homage to Siena for Monte Amiata.
Theirs too was the race of the proud " Latino " whom
Dante meets on his way to purification,1 and besides these
was many another great noble, with whom Siena had not
a few tough struggles. Each of her own citizens too
was bound to bring a taper of a size in proportion to
his income, except the very poor, the sick, and — singular
exception ! — those who had a grave feud with an enemy.
The wax thus brought was partly sold for the benefit of
the Duomo, partly used there, and in the evening Siena
rejoiced ; torches gleamed from the Mangia ; bonfires blazed
below in the Campo and on the surrounding hills, light-
ing up the dark forests and the wild and tumbled volcanic
country. On Monte Amiata an especially great one was
kindled, for those who dwelt there were bound to make
it visible at Siena.2 Whoever has been in the city when
the Palio is run can picture something of the mad excite-
ment as one fire glowed out far and near, for this part of
the ancient ceremony is preserved on the feast of the
Assumption, but in old times there was the exultation of
knowing that every one of the fires confessed the over-
lordship of Siena.

During all the earlier part of the fourteenth century
her power increased ; wealth flowed in from commerce
and banking, in which now even the noblest families
engaged. Besides home trades they had imports of
Flemish cloth, eastern goods, pepper, ginger and spices.
The profits shared among the sixteen families who formed
the clan of Salimbena were in A.D. 1337 one hundred
thousand gold florins, and the next year their agent
made a most profitable venture in " cloth of silk
embroidered with golden leaves and fruit, stars and moon,
and girdles of silk and gold of Sorian fashion," brides'
purses, also of silk and gold, and many other things, all

1 Purg. xi. 1. 58. 3 Gigli.

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 41

of which were displayed in the Salimbeni palaces before
being distributed to the salesmen employed by the family,
who by the year's end had disposed of all or nearly all
the goods. The purses seem especially to have taken
the ladies' fancy, since 180 were sold to brides of noble
birth in one month, not to count those bought by lesser folk.
" And," comments Malavolti, " this fact is sufficient proof
of the great riches and the great nobility then existing in
Siena, for I do not believe that in any Italian city there
could now be made in one year eighty alliances of great
families, or at least of questionless nobility."

This valuable cargo arrived safely, but the obstacles
in conveying goods from place to place were great.
Those brought by sea encountered storms and pirates
and galleys of hostile towns : by land there was the hard-
ness of the roads, swollen rivers, heavy tolls levied by
nobles, past whose castles the caravan went ; taxes for
entering a town, for setting up booths, all hampered
commerce. Robbers lay in wait, often men of gentle
birth, like that Rinaldo dei Pazzi who is among the thieves
in Dante's " Inferno." Worse still, every time a band of
Freelances was unemployed, they went about burning,
plundering, seizing any merchant with mules or wares
whom they met. Froissart gives a lively portrait of a
Freelance captain who could not forgive himself for having
repented too soon. " How light-hearted we were," he
exclaimed, " when we rode hither and thither, and found
by the way a rich abbot or prior, or a troop of mules
laden with Brussels cloth, or fur from the fair of Landit,
or spice from Bruges, or silken goods from Damascus or
Alexandria ! All was ours, and ransomed at our will.
Every day we had fresh money. The peasants of
Auvergne and the Limousin provided for us, and brought
to our stronghold wheat and flour, baked bread, barley
for the horses and litter, good wine, fat sheep and poultry.

42 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

We were kept like kings, and when we rode forth all the
countryside trembled before us. ... Comrades, that was
a fair life and a desirable ! "

Repeatedly goods coming or going from Siena were
thus intercepted, and in 1336 it was necessary to place
a troop of horsemen in Grosseto to protect the traders
going to the port of Talamone. The Free Companies
were the curse of Italy, and we shall find Catherine
Benincasa anxiously seeking to occupy them more harm-
lessly. Still, for many years, wealth poured into Siena, but
at the cost of rousing keen jealousy in Florence, whose
hostility was caused far more by commercial rivalry than
by different political interests. Florence was Guelf as
long as it suited her, and Siena looked to the Emperor
for support against the great lords in her territory, but
both held loosely to their parties, prizing their prosperity
above all, and regarding the prosperity of other towns as
a misfortune. If Florence tried to crush Pisa, it was
because she barred the way to the sea, if she were jealous
of Siena it was because Sienese commerce extended far
and wide, and she held one of the chief roads to Rome.

The wealth of Siena did not depend solely on trade.
Up to the time when Rome was deserted for Avignon,
Sienese merchants had banks in London and many other
cities, and lent money on interest, in plain words they were
usurers, known as Caorsini, a name used to distinguish
Christian from Jewish money-lenders, the name being
taken from Cahors, a French town famous in the wars of
the League, where usurers abounded. Readers of Dante
will recollect the scorn with which he regards the miserable
group sitting on the edge of the burning plain, and fondly
regarding the money-bags slung around their necks, and
Matthew Paris shows the same contemptuous dislike of
them, complaining that they carried themselves with a
high air in London, where the support of the Pope, for

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 43

whom they collected Peter's pence, baffled all the efforts
of the Bishop to keep them out of his diocese.

But later the papal banking business was transferred
to Florence ; the London banks were closed, and the
prosperity of Siena never recovered the check, which
came when the riches gathered by the fathers were
leading among their sons to a luxury and extravagance
hitherto unknown in the merchant city. It found its
most reckless expression in the Spendthrift Brigades,
one of which is branded by Dante.1 Its members met
to feast in a house still known as La Consuma, near
the gate of San Lorenzo ; the dwelling now looks as much
out of elbows as did the prodigals when they had wasted
all they had under the belief that the world was coming
to an end. "They lived amid banquets and delights,"
wrote Tizio, and flung their gold and silver plate and
drinking vessels into the street after each repast, and shod
their horses with silver, outdoing Filippo Argenti
the Florentine, inasmuch as they ordered them to be
loosely shod, and forbade their servants to pick up any
shoes that dropped. After ten months of riotous living
they were beggared, and two popular songs exist which
commemorate their folly. Who the pair on whom Dante
conferred a scornful fame really were is now unknown ;
some old writers identify one as a Salimbeni.

Unlike most Italian cities Siena counted wealth as
nobility. Not till the people governed did nobles pay
taxes ; the first imposed on them was the hearth tax,
paid also by the middle class and the poor, then followed
the Lira, and the community was divided into the greater
and lesser citizens. Naturally ambition awoke to belong to
the former class, and there sprang up a number of ennobled
families, looked down on of course by the older ones, and
resentful of their attitude, as was the case in France

1 Inf. xiii. 11. 115-129.

44 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

before the Revolution, and the ill-will between them was
a new cause of weakness in Siena. Patriotism slackened,
and, while private feuds were as bitter as ever, the war-
like spirit declined ; it seemed better to hire mercenaries
to fight for the city than to risk one's own life. At
one time the ruling thought of the citizens was to make
their town great. No sacrifice was counted for that end.
When Florence sent as haughty a message as ever did
the Thirty Cities to Rome, and the fate of Siena trembled
in the balance, Messer Salimbene dei Salimbeni appeared
at the head of his kinsfolk and retainers, escorting a car
covered with scarlet cloth, and, entering the little Church
of San Cristofero where the magistrates sat in gloomy
silence, took from it 1 00,000 florins, which he poured on
the pavement, bidding them spend the money for the
defence of the city, and not spare, for more would be
forthcoming if needed. But in Catherine's day the
citizens thought more of their own welfare than that of
Siena, and evil times found an enfeebled generation to
encounter them.

With all the luxury, the encouragement of Art, the
religious revivals, there was a background of almost in-
credible violence and cruelty in the fourteenth century which
must be realised as part of the surroundings of St
Catherine. Even allowing for the colours being strongly
laid on, what a picture it is that we see in chronicles and
sermons ! "If there were a thousand Guelfs, and one
day a small child were born of a Ghibelline, immediately
one and all would hate him," says Bernadino, and in
another place he gives an appalling description of the
savage cruelty and murders of women and children in
faction fights. Dante records the venomous hatred of
Sapia for the party who had banished her from Siena,
and her exultation at seeing them routed. She is a
portrait of the partisan of that day, passionately resenting

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 45

private wrongs, and triumphing in her opponents' fall.
Women in these fights were always ready to egg on the
men. " I have heard," Bernadino says, " of women so
bitter against the opposite party that they would put
a lance into the hand of their little child, that he might
slay and take vengeance. And there was a woman so
cruel that when she saw another of the other party
escaping she cried to her people, ' Such a one is escaping ;
a certain fellow has set her on his horse, and is carrying
her away,' and running after them she cried, ' Set her
down if thou would'st not die/ and when she was set
down that woman murdered her."

He gives more details, too horrible for quotation,
though preached to a great congregation, and then
observes, " Verily so great ills have been done through
faction that what I have said is almost nothing."

The streets of Siena are quiet enough now, but the
city looks so ancient — Taine called it a mediaeval Pompeii
— that a visitor might fancy it unaltered since the days
when Catherine lived in it. But many of the buildings
which look so old were then new, or did not exist. The
Palazzo Publico and the Mangia were there, though a
story lower than at present ; the Cappella di Piazza below
them was only erected in the year after her birth, as a
thanksgiving for the cessation of the plague, with two
golden florins in the foundation as a charm against earth-
quakes : the Churches of San Domenico and Francesco
were not completed for another century. Among buildings
already old were the palaces of the Tolomei and Salimbeni,
rival families, " filled with very bloody enmity, on account
of their might, their close neighbourhood, and their
opposite parties," for the Tolomei were a house more
devoted to Florence than any other in Tuscany,1 while
the Salimbeni were strong imperialists, and their rivalry

1 Malavolti.

46 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

was so serious that about 1317 Florence interfered, " to
the wonderful satisfaction not only of the city, but of
the Florentine Republic, who sent ambassadors to persuade
them, and used great diligence to do so, since the
hostility of these two families kept all the city disunited,
and might cause great harm not only to the city of Siena,
but to the Guelf cause." l

Unfortunately promises of peace between rival families
were what Italians call " mariners' vows," broken as soon
as opportunity offered. " Close neighbourhood " was
hard to avoid, though at first each palace stood in a clear
space, within which were the shops of its merchants,
stables for the horses of the masters and men-at-arms,
and the mules which carried merchandise. Sometimes
the palaces of allied families were united by a covered
passage high above the street, and many had lofty towers
" forming," we hear, " a spectacle of surpassing beauty,"
though it must be owned that a print of mediaeval Siena,
now in the Uffizi, suggests a town full of factory chimneys.
Tomasi says they were mostly built by citizens who
obtained leave to do so in token of proud nobility or
for offence and defence, " when the injured people
sought to cast down the power of the great." Sometimes
they had a more honourable origin. The family whose
name was changed to Incontrati by public decree,
because they " encountered " the foe with such extra-
ordinary valour in the fight with Florence at Monte
Maggio, had a tower built at public expense, known as
" The Tower of Victory," and it was decreed that any
Sienese who distinguished himself in battle or civic life
might build one. The oldest bit of masonry in Siena is
the Rocchetta tower, where St Ansano is said to have
been imprisoned.

The palaces of Siena look grimly down, but whereas

1 Malavolti.

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 47

those of Rome have often great dungeons, with an oubliette
or perhaps a secret passage to the Tiber, none in Siena
had any prisons below them, and even the public jails
were small. The prisoners were offenders against the
law, or supposed to be such, and were there by order of
the magistrates, not at the pleasure of private individuals.
Fines played a great part in civic punishments, and only
heretics were imprisoned for life. Siena is said to have
been less cruel as to torture than most mediaeval towns,
but it was common. Executions took place in the
Campo, until, annoyed by the cries of the mutilated and
by the sight of bodies hanging from a gibbet or burned
at the stake, the dwellers in the houses near got the place
of punishment removed to the Poggio delle Forche, out-
side the city, whither the victims were led through the Via
dei Malcontenti, a name which has a cruel touch of irony.
It is unsatisfactory to find that as time went on, prisoners
were treated worse, for whereas early in the fourteenth
century they had a chapel and a priest, and the prison
was supplied with water, later they lost these privileges.
" Justice is a holy thing," wrote Catherine, who was much
troubled about them, " but not to be exercised with
cruelty."

Many palaces were built in the prosperous time before
the Black Death, and there were handsome brick houses
of the middle class, and wooden ones for the poor, which
often took fire ; statutes strictly forbade inflammable
matter being thrown into the streets, nor might hay or
straw be piled in them. At the first alarm of fire a great
bell rang fast and loud, and the guild sworn to help in
such case hurried to the spot, shouting " Fire," while
other citizens ran to carry water and save life and property,
while a guard kept order as far as possible, and looked
after what was saved, but sometimes feuds interfered
with help, or malcontents seized the opportunity of making

48 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

a tumult. If the house belonged to a poor man, it was
rebuilt at public cost ; if to a member of an Art, his guild
subscribed to help him.

Fire was the more dreaded because water was scarce.
Dante mocks at the efforts of the Sienese to find the
Diana, a stream believed to flow under the city which
was only supplied with water by " bottini," pipes carried
underground from a very early time for a great distance
to the nineteen fountains in the city. These had a
drinking-place for animals, and one for washing clothes,
as well as a guazzatorium, or baths which the public could
use at stated times; — the rich citizens had their own
bathing place, and the water was used by various trades ;
Fontebranda was originally made for the refugees from
Milan who brought their Art to Siena when Barbarossa
sacked their city and sowed the ground with salt. In
1339 the Leathermakers also petitioned to use it. The
request was addressed to the Operajo del Duomo, who
looked after the fountains, each of which had its guardian.
Private citizens had water carried to their houses by
donkeymen. Though the Diana was never found, at last
a plentiful supply of water was discovered, which answered
almost as well.

When the " Sixteen " ruled Siena, a real improvement
was made ; the main streets were paved, and rain rushed
down and cleansed them instead of soaking in, but there
remained countless lanes and alleys winding in and out
among the houses, steep and crooked and very dirty, the
city pigs and the half- wild, masterless dogs who probably
suggested the idea of " lupi mannari " — were-wolves —
being the only scavengers. The filth was great, though
slops might only be pitched into the streets at certain
hours, and the archives record cases of fine when this law
was disobeyed. A hint of the state of the city is found
in names yet remaining, such as Via Pantenato, Marsh

SIENA IN THE TRECENTO 49

Street, or Via Infangato, Muddy Street. The terzi were
divided into contradi or wards, every one with its own
Church and banner — Catherine's is said to have been
called the Oca from the large flocks of geese brought up
there, but all the names were taken either from animals
or natural objects. Every ward was closed at night by a
gate, each with its tower ; there were at one time thirty-
six gates, and the city is encircled by grand old walls,
built as much to prevent any one from leaving it as to
keep enemies out. Had Petrarch been a student in Siena
instead of Bologna, he and his gay companions could not
have come back late at night, climbing the stockade which
served to enclose the town. No such pranks are recorded
of students attending the University of Siena, which was
famous long before Florence founded one, and which
grudged nothing to attract eminent teachers. At the
beginning of the Trecento, when most of the Professors
from Bologna left their posts in protest against one of
their number having been very deservedly executed by the
Podesta, Siena paid 6000 florins to redeem the books
which they had pledged, paid all expenses of bringing
them and their goods to her University, and promised an
annual salary of 300 golden florins among them, and free
lodging for six months. But their claims were too exorbi-
tant to be satisfied, and the next year they departed.
All Universities were subject to these violent changes,
and sieges and war often dispersed both professors and
students.

CHAPTER III

A THORNY PATH

THERE are Sardinian girls in the present century
who lead much such a life as that which Catherine
Benincasa had chosen. Taking the three vows com-
mon to all monastic orders, they enter no convent but live
at home in a little room set apart for them, having no
communication with the outer world except when visited
by their confessor ; their food is silently handed in tto
them, and they are supposed to spend their lives in
meditation and prayer. Such an existence may end in
apathy, or early death, or insanity, or again, where there
is the mystic temperament, it may rise to intense
devotion, and the happy visionary may be enraptured by
heavenly sights and sounds, as was Catherine, after the
hard struggle which for a time racked soul and body.
The three years spent after that time were a period of
exquisite peace and joy, during which she grew more and
more in knowledge of herself and of heavenly things. But
suddenly on her reluctant mind was forced the conviction
that she must renounce this life of contemplation, and,
returning to the daily round, seek to help and teach her
fellow townsmen. It was a repetition on a far larger
scale of her childish perception that instead of being a
hermit she must go home. She strove hard not to
believe it, praying with tears to be spared this trial.
How could she teach and exhort, she pleaded, weak and
liable to temptation as she was, of no rank or importance,
so

ST. GATHER INK

BV CUZZAKKI.I.I

A THORNY PATH 51

and only a woman ? "I have a mission for thee," the
inward Voice answered, " and it is My will that thou
should'st appear in public. Wherever thou goest I will
be with thee and never leave thee." Then Catherine
submitted, saying through tears, " Thy will be done in
all things, Thou art light and I am darkness ; Thou art,
and I am not."

And she came among her family, and outwardly lived
their life, though in her heart she ever conversed with
God.

Thus to resume daily life showed great moral courage.
Her apparent renunciation of what she had striven so
hard three years earlier to obtain must have exposed her
to much unkind and mocking comment, for there would
be many to believe that she was simply weary of seclusion
and self-denial, and, as she foresaw, her age and sex
were a serious obstacle to good works outside her father's
house. It was true that before her day there had been
women who though entering no convent had led lives
which caused them to be counted as saints. Such was
Donolina Salimbeni, who " lived in the world chastely and
religiously, having given herself to a heavenly Bridegroom,
with special devotion to St Francis of Assisi, and almost
all day she spent in the Church of the Minorites, and
none spoke ill of her. And thirty ladies of Marseilles,"
where she lived, " were her disciples, some noble, some
of the middle class, whose mistress and lady she was."
But Donolina was a great lady, could do what a dyer's
daughter could not, except at the cost of affronting public
opinion, and that the Church, while allowing women who
devoted themselves to the religious life to be called
nuns, regarded them doubtfully is shown by the
severe tone taken towards them in the Rule of St
Benedict. Catherine in fact lived by a rule of her own
which roused not only the inevitable opposition of evil

52 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

to good, but even caused much scandal. For an unmarried
girl to put herself forward in any way was contrary to all
custom, and the Mantellate watched her uneasily, though
she only very gradually began the work which was to
grow so far beyond what she or any one could have fore-
seen, content at first with helping poor families near the
Fullonica, both with alms, and loving words which
induced them to lead a better life, and her influence
became so strong that she was several times able to
interpose in the violent disputes which began to break
out between masters and workmen, every one of which
increased the tension between the two parties, and drove
away trade. Her name gradually became known far
beyond the ward of the Oca ; her voice, lovely both in
speech and song, soothed dying beds ; her touch and
prayers healed the sick ; it was told that the daughter of
Giacomo Benincasa cured when the doctor had said
there was no hope, and with each sufferer restored to
health her fame grew.

That she had what to herself and all around her
appeared miraculous power is beyond doubt, and even
if we admit that her cures were made through natural
laws, her power was none the less divinely given, nor
does it detract from the reverence and admiration due to
her to accept a natural explanation of much that could
only seem miraculous in a century which knew nothing
of laws which even now are only dimly apprehended. It
is however a safe rule that " we should never convert an
event into a miracle when there is a satisfactory explana-
tion within the fixed laws of nature."

Precisely how Catherine was able to cure we cannot
tell, any more than we can how Father John does so in
Russia now, but we all know something of the power of
mind over body, and how great a tonic is hope. Catherine
was in the most favourable position possible to effect faith

A THORNY PATH 53

healing ; she had herself a magnificent gift of faith, never
doubting that, if it were for the good of the sufferer, her
prayers would cure him, and she possessed the full confi-
dence of her patients. Raimondo, who witnessed many
cases when she healed the sick, gives a remarkable instance
in that of Matteo di Cenni, head of the Spedale, the great
hospital of Siena, which had been founded in the twelfth
century by a noble Sienese and had its own staff 01
attendants, who wore brown robes and black caps.
Catherine constantly visited the sick there, and the little
room is still shown where she slept when detained too
late to return home. In 1408 the building was made
over to the University when all the charitable foundations
in Siena were united together, and the Dominicans had
the charge of it, but it was less well looked after than in
Catherine's day, for a century and a half later we find
Bernadino Ochino writing to exhort them to attend better
to the sick in the hospital, where they were now " only
waited on by hirelings, without self-denying love or
exhortation, so that their souls were often more sick than
their bodies," and a month later he writes again, in words
that Catherine might have used, "Visit the poor sick, or
rather, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the hospital,,
doing it as may be easiest to each, and in fixed order."

No such exhortations were needed in Catherine's time,
though when Messer Matteo lay at death's door, the self-
devotion of its staff was tried to the utmost. For the
third time in less than thirty years the piteous wail was
heard in Siena, " Ahime, sento il grosso " — (alas, I feel the
swelling ! ) — the sign that plague was again in the city.
All the old, miserable scenes were repeated ; a brother and
sister of Catherine's died of it, and so did six of the eleven
grandchildren whom Lapa was bringing up. Catherine
laid them herself in the grave, saying amid her tears,
" These I can never lose." The Dominicans worked

54 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

unflinchingly, only at first refusing to let young novices
visit the plague-stricken ; this restriction however had to
be withdrawn as one after another of the older men died
at his post, and it is noteworthy that as an encouragement
to the young workers, they were told that they should
have Catherine as a companion. " Such a reward is
splendid ! " exclaimed one of them, Simone da Cortona,
" beside Catherine all work is rest." He was one of the
few who escaped from the plague, shaking it off through
his confidence in her healing powers. " The dead fell like
rotten apples," says Tomasi in his " Historic di Siena."

Catherine had just been through a most painful time
of unjust suspicion and calumny ; she repaid her fellow-
citizens by dauntless self-devotion, tending the sick, laying
out the dead, encouraging, exhorting, comforting. It
was at this time that she became acquainted with
Raimondo, who was to be her devoted friend and con-
fessor. He was of the ancient family of Delle Vigne,
and therefore had as an ancestor the faithful, ill-used
Chancellor Pietro, who once " held the keys of his
master's heart," until " whispering tongues did poison
truth," and Frederic II. drove him to suicide by his
mistrust, an innocent and slandered servant, as Dante
tells in the " Inferno." 1 Raimondo had just been sent to
the Dominican convent at Siena, and worked as fearlessly
among the plague-stricken as did Catherine herself,
though he owns that at this time he was in a cold and
indifferent state as to religion, from which his acquaintance
with her roused him. He paid daily visits to the hospital,
and on one occasion found with consternation that the
Director had been taken ill, and his case was already
desperate. He left the bedside of Messer Matteo in deep
sorrow, and went to minister to others in the wards.
Meanwhile Catherine, who had heard the sad news, walked
1 Inf. xiii. 11. 58-63.

z
z

8 <
5§

o "•
a j

A THORNY PATH 55

in bright and energetic. " Get up, Father Matteo, " she
exclaimed cheerfully, " this is no time to be lying idle in
bed," and as the sick man heard her, something of her
own vitality seemed to pass into him. Raimondo,
knowing nothing of this, met her as she was leaving
the house, and stopped her. " Will you let one so dear
to me, so useful to others die ? " he exclaimed. Catherine
was startled and displeased. " Am I like God to deliver a
man from death ? " she asked reprovingly. But Raimondo,
" beside himself with grief," persisted. " I know that you
obtain from God whatever you will," he said. Catherine
stood with bent head, smiled a little, and presently, looking
him frankly in the face, she said, " Courage, he will not
die this time," and went away, while he hurried back to
Messer Matteo, who was no longer lying in bed at death's
door, but risen on the way to recovery. " Do you know
what she has done for me ? " he cried. A meal was laid
for him, of which he partook with most encouraging
appetite. This event forms the subject of one of the
frescoes in the Church which is now part of the Fullonica.
Raimondo too experienced her power of healing. Worn
out with incessant toil among the sick, he fell worn out
on her threshold ; she took his head between her hands
and, refreshed by her magnetic touch, he slept for two
hours. " Now, father, go back to your work," she said
gaily when he woke.

This outbreak of plague was in 1374, and Catherine
had returned to everyday life and active charity in 1367.
The years had been full of trial to her and to Siena.
From the day when the magistracy of the Novi were
expelled there had been constant changes of government
and tumults, and the cry was never long silent of " Death
to the popolo grasso," raised by the popolo magro, as
the lower bourgeoisie were very significantly called, the
word "popolo" including professional classes, traders and

56 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

artisans, between all of whom and the " popolo minuto,"
the lowest class in Siena, there was a sharp distinction,
while the peasantry did not count at all ; the " common
man " had no political, hardly any civil rights ; in all
Dante's great portrait-gallery he finds no place, and
chroniclers hardly acknowledge his existence, or hear a
word of pity for his sufferings, though no class endured
such misery as the peasants in the Hundred Years' War
in France, or the raids of the Free Companies in Italy.

The Novi, who on the whole had governed with good
sense and patriotism, were driven out in 1355 by a con-
spiracy organised by certain noble families who would no
longer endure their exclusion from the government, and the
excited populace murdered several magistrates, burned the
public records, and sought to have their families excluded
for ever from taking any part in ruling the city. The
conspiring nobles gained little by their ill-doings, for the
Dodici (Twelve) who were now appointed came entirely
from what Malavolti calls the " numero medio," or middle
class, and the gentlemen elected to take counsel with them
were mere figure heads. The chief alteration was that the
officer called the Captain of the People, hitherto an out-
sider, should be a Sienese, his office only lasting two
months, a fruitful source of intrigue. Andrea Vanni, a
friend of Catherine's, held the offices at one time, and
she wrote to him bidding him recollect that if ever the
city was to have peace, justice must be observed ; it was
for lack of this that so much ill had befallen, wherefore
she earnestly wished to see him a just and true ruler, a
desire repeated in her letter to the Podesta, Pietro del
Monte, " Be true judge and lord in the state to which God
has called you, and give rich and poor their due, always
tempered by mercy." The year 1368 saw revolution in
Siena. On a smaller scale there was an outbreak like the
one organised ten years later by the " Ciompi " in Florence,

A THORNY PATH 57

in which Catherine nearly perished. The Sienese up-
rising was started by some three hundred of the wool
carders, who belonged to the popolo minuto, and who
formed an association which they called after the cater-
pillar on the banner of their ward " la compagnia del
Bruco." Led by one Domenico, a retail vendor of woollen
stuffs, they paraded the city, reinforced by the Compagnia
del Popolo, " wanting to be masters themselves," and to
shake off the yoke of their guild. They seem to have
been wretchedly poor, and they went from house to house,
threatening and demanding food. Three of the leaders
were quickly arrested, tortured and condemned to death.
It was the signal for a rising which for a fortnight kept
Siena in uproar, thanks less to the artisans than to the
Salimbeni, who did not indeed espouse the cause of the
people, but fought for their own hand to recover their old
power. The Salimbeni and the artisans alike failed to get
what they aimed at, but the city suffered severely, and trade
was for the time at a standstill. While Siena was thus
impoverished, a severe strain on its resources was imposed
on it by the Emperor Charles IV. He had been there
when the Novi were deposed ; he now returned with a troop
of Germans, under pretext of putting down disorders.
Siena had no pleasant recollection of his former visit, and
though nominally Ghibelline, she never forgot that she was
one of the earliest Italian cities to become a free town, and
when a rumour — probably not ill founded — spread that
Charles meant to seize and sell it to the Pope the bells in-
stantly called the citizens to arms, and desperate street fight-
ing ensued. They were led by their brave Captain of the
People, Manzano, " a man of a great soul and very valorous
although a plebeian," says the aristocratic Malavolti with
unconscious insolence, and the German soldiery gave way.
Charles fled to the Salimbeni palace in abject fear. He
wept, sobbed, excused himself, embraced every one, declar-

58 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

ing that he had been betrayed by the Salimbeni, offering
forgiveness unasked, and many more favours than any one
wanted. Trembling and terrified, without power and with-
out money, his soldiers beaten, his prestige gone, he only
desired to have Siena, but as soon as Manzano came to
terms with him, he resumed his former haughty tone, and
demanded 20,000 florins, to be paid in four years. The
first instalment was paid at once, on condition that
he should immediately leave the city, which he gladly
did.1 Siena had small reason to love Charles IV. He
left behind him an impoverished town, families mourning
their dead, stagnant trade, and a great hatred of the nobles
who had sided with him, more especially of the Salimbeni.

Catherine's tender offices were needed on all sides, so
she had to put private sorrows aside, but they were heavy.
Her good father died in the autumn of 1368, and the
fall of the Dodici which came soon after caused a new
sedition and an onslaught upon their supporters. Her
brothers were among them, and a friend hurried to warn
them that they were in danger, advising them to escape
to the Church of Sant' Antonio, where others of their
party had taken refuge, but Catherine hastily interposed.
" They are not to go, and sorry am I for those who are
there," she said, and, putting on the cloak which marked
her as a Mantellata, she led them out into the midst of
their enemies. Had they gone alone they would have
risked death, but Catherine was at once recognised by
the crowd, who bowed respectfully to her and made way
for them to pass.

All who took refuge in Sant' Antonio were murdered
or imprisoned ; the Benincasa escaped with a heavy fine,
but their means were so crippled and their position so
uncertain, though none of them seem to have taken a
prominent part in public events, that three found it

1 Neri di Donati.

A THORNY PATH 59

advisable to emigrate to Florence, where they already had
a branch trade, and with her husband went Lisa, the
favourite sister-in-law of Catherine, not to return until she
was a widow. A niece seems to have continued the
business in Siena, but poverty now came upon the family,
and the brothers in Florence neglected their old mother ;
Catherine's letters remind them of their duty toward her
as undone, and there is a hint of family dissensions in her
urgency that they should be at peace together. Although
one at least, Benincasa, who is always called by his family
name, and indeed seems to have been christened by it,
returned to Siena from time to time to see those of his
relations still there, the brothers in Florence renounced
their native city, and were enrolled as Florentine citizens,
and this branch remained as members of the rival republic
until a century later when they petitioned Siena to take
them back. Soon after this the name disappears, and
the family apparently became extinct. Families were apt
to die out, however numerous, in days when war and
feuds put an end to men so readily, and when convents
absorbed so many of both sexes, as in the case of the
De Beaufort, whence sprang Gregory XL, with whom
Catherine was to have so much to do. He belonged to
a family where an uncle had already been Pope, and
another uncle, two nephews and five cousins, cardinals.
Two or three early deaths among those left might easily
extinguish such a family.

Another trouble which fell on Catherine about this
time was the illness of her mother, with its attendant
circumstances, for the stout-hearted old woman maintained
that she should recover, would see no priest nor receive
the last sacraments, and told Catherine that she would
do better to pray her back to health, than to exhort her
to make a pious end. She did recover, and lived to be
over eighty, surviving her daughter by many years, and

60 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

becoming a Mantellata. Raimondo is greatly scandalised
by her determination to live, and points out how many
trials and sorrows came upon her as a chastisement, but
Lapa was still full of life and energy, had grandchildren
to bring up, and a daughter to care for who she must have
felt needed some one to look after her as far as she
would allow any one to do so, nor could she wish to
leave her unprotected after the cruel slanders which had
been spread concerning her. Popular though she was in
the city, that very popularity roused jealousy and illwill
and even dislike. Her austere life was a reproach to
more easy-going Mantellate ; her fasts were disbelieved in ;
" she eats well enough in secret," said her enemies ; her
frequent communions were a thing very unusual at that
time, and roused especial disapprobation ; her long prayers
were held as a sign of hypocrisy, and a sneering disbelief
was shown as to the ecstatic states in which she stood or
knelt insensible to earthly sights and sounds. So high
ran the feeling that once, at some time between 1370-74,
she was dragged while in trance out of San Domenico,
kicked and flung into the burning sun, unconscious of
what was done to her until she at length came to herself,
and found her friends weeping over her.

Even the friars seem to have sided against her at
this time, ordering that as soon as Mass was over she
should leave the Church, and her confessor, Delia Fonte
alarmed and perplexed, advised her to modify her aus-
terities rather than cause scandal, but finally admitted
that she was right in paying no attention to the storm
raging against her. All her life there were those who
slandered and taxed her with hypocrisy ; even Raimondo,
who, as he says, had had to do with many visionary and
silly women, was at first doubtful of her.

In the early days of her work in Siena other, and very
dangerous charges were brought against her. Outside

THE ECSTASY OF ST. CATHERINE

BV SODOMA

A THORNY PATH 61

Porta Romana stood a leper house which she visited,
though not only was leprosy dreaded as contagious, but
those afflicted by it were supposed thus stricken on
account of some great sin, and so were doubly shunned.
Leprosy was terribly common, and the lazar houses
provided were quite insufficient to contain the sufferers.
Those who found a refuge there were the least unfortunate ;
the rest wandered about in parties, dreaded, ill-used, driven
away, yet still returning. If an epidemic broke out, the
lepers were accused of poisoning the fountains that all
might be as miserable as themselves, and a burst of savage
fury was the result.

Among the inmates of the Sienese lazar house was a
certain Francesca or Cecca, a mass of loathsome sores.
When all others shrank from her, Catherine would wash
her wounds with fearless tenderness, while, trying, as she
always did, to awaken repentance and faith in her patient.
Possibly the woman resented her exhortations, or wearied of
them — Catherine was still very young and inexperienced,
and may have pressed them too much upon her. In
any case this Cecca persuaded herself that " the Benincasa "
attended her merely to expiate some secret and grievous
sin. Her foul suspicions found vent in taunts ; if her
kind attendant came a few minutes late, she was greeted
with, " Welcome, Queen of Fontebranda ! Oh, the fine
Queen who stays all day long in the Friars' church !
Look me in the face, my lady ; have you been spending
all this time with the Friars ? One sees you cannot have
enough of friars."

The venomous words were of course heard by the
other inmates of the lazar house, and how venomous they
were we only understand on realising what was the
popular belief as to the immorality both of the
mendicants and the priests. Fra Bernadino, himself a
friar, strongly warns his female listeners to beware of

62 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

them. Even respectable widows should "talk neither
with good nor bad ones, but stay at home, and not go
too often to Church." " If a widow be seen talking to
a friar, seven will murmur against her." Catherine knew
well what was meant, but she continued to nurse her
until she died and went to her own place, as Raimondo
significantly puts it. Her kindness cost her dear, for
her hands became for a time affected by what was
called leprosy, and the verdict of her enemies was, " served
her right " — " Bene le stava ogni male." The disease
was probably cutaneous ; every skin affection was apt to
be classed as leprosy in the Middle Ages, just as all forms
of lunacy were held to be demoniacal possession, and
she entirely recovered.

A yet more cruel enemy was Andrea, a Mantellata,
whom she attended when dying of cancer. She circulated
slander against Catherine's fair fame to such purpose
that she was called before a meeting of the Sisters, and
sharply reproached and questioned. She answered very
briefly and simply, and escaped being expelled, but
there are indications of her having been called before a
Chapter of the Order at Florence to defend herself.1 In
the Strozzi Library in that city a MS. exists which notes
that in May, A.D. 1374, a certain Catherine of Jacopo of
Siena, a member of the " pinzochere " of St Dominic, was
summoned before a Chapter of the Friars Preachers, but
she was not yet famous, and the tantalising notice tells
no more. Nor does Raimondo speak of it. She seems
to have visited her brothers, and after this several letters
are addressed to a young niece, Nanna, the daughter of
one of them, and apparently it was at this time that she
made the acquaintance, afterwards so important, of
Soderini, who remained her firm friend. Lapa, furious at
the accusations of Andrea, vehemently forbade Catherine

1 Gigli, Voc. Cat. p. ii.

A THORNY PATH 63

when she came home to have anything more to do with
her. " How often have I told thee not to serve that
wretched old woman ? " she cried, " she has foully
slandered thee among all the Sisters, and God knows if
thou wilt ever clear thyself." Catherine thought it over,
and presently came to her. "Sweet mother," she said,
" do you think our Lord would be pleased with us if we
left works of mercy undone because our neighbour is
unthankful ? When our Saviour hung on the Cross and
heard the ungrateful talk of the people around, did He
for their cruel words abandon the work of their redemp-
tion ? Good mother, you know very well that if I left
the old sick woman, she would die of neglect, for no one
would come and do such things as one in her condition
needs, and so I should cause her death."

And she added with joyful confidence that in the end
Andrea would own that she had lied, which indeed she
did, with deep repentance, but calumnies do not easily die
out, and the jealousy of the Mantellate, together with
their readiness to believe evil is not a pleasant picture.

A new enemy sprang up in Palmerina, a sister who
had bestowed her property upon the Order, and who
bitterly resented her importance being lessened by
Catherine's rising fame. She could not hear her name
without an outburst of angry spite, and constantly spoke
against her. Catherine could only pray with all her
heart that she might not be an occasion of sin to one of
the Mantellata, and, to her deep and thankful joy,
Palmerini sent for her, and weeping asked her forgive-
ness, publicly confessing her jealous injustice. Mr
Jameson suggests that the nun in Sassoferrato's picture
who kisses Catherine's hand is meant for Palmerina.

None the less, slander continued. " They who sur-
rounded her measured not her words and deeds by God's
rules, but their own," exclaims Raimondo. " Ah, Lord

64 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

my God, how often was it said of her, ' She casts out
devils through Beelzebub, prince of the devils,' in other
words, ' These visions come not from God, but from the
Evil One.' " Even her patriotism was questioned, and at
a much later time, when her character had long been
established. Rarely indeed does she allow personal
feeling to appear in her letters, but it is shown touchingly
in one written to a friend who had warned her of the
reports spread in consequence of her friendship with the
Salimbeni of Rocca d'Orcia. " She is assured," she says,
" that she is doing right, though for well doing she receives
evil ; for the honour which she seeks to do her fellow-
citizens she receives shame ; in return for life they give
her death."

Catherine must have been moved indeed when she
allowed herself to write this. Usually she tried to ignore
slander, and keep her partisans from taking her part too
vehemently. A letter to some Florentine ladies in 1376
after a visit to their city shows that again ill tongues had
not spared her, and that her friends showed more zeal
than discretion in defending her. " I shall scold you
well, my dear daughters, for forgetting what I told you.
I bade you have nothing at all to say to those who might
speak against me. Now recollect I will not have you
begin it all over again."

It is bravely written, with a ring of gaiety in it.
Catherine is said to have had a French ancestor,1 and had
a blessed gift of cheerfulness which may have come
down from a Gallic source, and she was very human,
though a great saint. She sang over her work ; she
loved making nosegays, and gathering flowers ; she had a
special affection for the mantle with which she had been
invested in San Domenico, and patched and mended it to
make it last, and she took the pain caused by her

1 Mignaty — Vie de St Catherine de Sienne.

A THORNY PATH 65

wrecked health gaily, but she was hardly more than a
girl, and fatherless when the worst storm of calumny
broke upon her, and the courage and patience which she
showed during a time made doubly hard by the distress it
gave her mother cannot be overestimated.

By degrees the storm died down, and admiration and
respect surrounded her. Legends began to be told exalt-
ing her charity, and showing with what favour she was
regarded in Heaven, some trivial, some poetic. One of
the latter was the story of how while she was praying in
San Dominico a poor man asked alms, and she gently
answered that she would go home and fetch him some
help. He answered that he could not wait, and she cast
about for what she could bestow on him, and finding
nothing but her little silver cross, gave it, and he went
his way. That night she had a vision of Christ holding
the cross, but now it was adorned with many gems, and
He said, " Daughter, know'st thou this ? " " Yes, Lord,"
she replied, " right well, but it was not so adorned when
I had it." Then He said, " Yesterday thou did'st give
Me this with a cheerful heart and a great love, and these
stones signify them. And I promise that at the Day of
Judgment I will show it before men and angels to the
increase of thine everlasting joy and glory, for I will not
let such deeds of charity be hidden as are done by thee."

Raimondo relates this as actual fact, but we cannot
imagine Catherine telling a story so redounding to her
own honour even to her confessor, and it may safely be
classed among the many legends which gathered round
her lovely memory.

As yet her work had lain among the poor, but an
event happened destined to bring her into general
prominence. A young knight named Tuldo was con-
demned to death for small cause. Furious at the
injustice of his sentence, he refused to prepare for death.

66 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Catherine begged leave to see him, and her sympathy
and loving words brought him to another mind. The
story must be told in her own striking words, as related
in a letter to Raimondo, now her confessor, but absent
from Siena. " I went to see him whom you know " — some
correspondence must have passed between them about the
unfortunate man — "through which he was greatly com-
forted, saw Fra Tomaso and confessed in a very right
state of mind, and he made me promise to be with him
at the hour of execution, for the love of God. I
promised, and did so. In the morning, before the bell of
the Campanile rang, I was with him to hear Mass and
communicate, which till then he had not done.1 He was
quite resigned to the will of God, only fearing that he
might not be strong at the last, but the Saviour in His
boundless mercy so strengthened him, and so filled him
with the longing for His presence that he kept saying,
1 Lord, be with me ; Lord, do not leave me ; if Thou
wilt be near, all will be well with me, and I shall be
content.' As he prayed thus he leaned his head against
my breast. . . . The longing of my soul increased to
shed also my blood with him for my beloved Saviour,
and perceiving that he still feared, I said, Be comforted,
sweet brother ; we are soon going to your marriage ; you
will go bathed in the precious blood of the Son of God,
with the dear name of Jesus on your lips. ... I will
await you at the place of execution. Then — think of it,
dear Father ! every trace of fear seemed gone, and a
great light came into his heart ; he who had so rebelled
now called the place of execution holy ; he seemed to
exult, and asked, ' how comes such grace to be shewn to
me ? and will you, joy of my soul, indeed await me at
that holy spot ? ' . . . Before he came I laid my own
neck on the block . . . over it I prayed, and said,

• 1 " At this time " must be implied, or since his first communion."

A THORNY PATH 67

' Mary ! ' for I wanted to obtain the grace that at this
moment light and peace might enter his heart, and then
I saw him coming. My soul was so filled that though
there was a great crowd I saw no one. . . . And he came
like a meek lamb, and seeing me he began to smile, and
bade me sign the cross over him, and then I said, ' To
the bridal, gentle brother ; soon you will attain eternal
life.' He knelt down with great meekness, and I bend-
ing low, laid his neck in place and reminded him of the
blood of the Lamb. His lips spoke no word but ' Jesus,'
and ' Catherine.' And therewith I received his head in
my hands, and closing my eyes in God, I said, ' I will/ "
meaning, says Tomaso, that she joined in submission to
the Divine will, but the passage is obscure. And as she
knelt lost in fervent prayer that this soul might enter
Paradise, it seemed to her that she saw it pause as a bride
might do on the threshold of the bridegroom's house, to
look back and sign her thanks to those who had accom-
panied her thither, and " clear as daylight I saw the Son of
God receive into His bosom that sweet soul ; full of love
and mercy He received him who had so meekly accepted
a criminal's death, not for aught he had done, but only
out of love ... so dear was his blood to me that I could
not bear it to be washed off my dress. ... I envied him
who had gone before."

This letter is especially valuable, not only for what it
reveals of Catherine's work and character, but because it is
one of the very few in which she tells of anything that
concerned her personally. Nearly four hundred letters
dictated or occasionally written by herself have been pre-
served. They are addressed to all sorts and conditions of
men, to her own family, to the Queen of Naples, to Sir John
Hawkwood, the leader of Freelances who appears in Italian
chronicles as Giovanni Aguto or, with a desperate effort
to get the name right, as Haukebbode, to cardinals and

68 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

hermits, to Dominican friars and Mantellate. No less
than twenty-four are written to a Florentine tradesman
and his wife, friends probably made during her visit to
Florence, another, especially noteworthy, is addressed to
the terrible Bernabo Visconti, the scourge of northern
Italy, who boasted that in his own domains he was Pope,
Emperor and King, for there not even Heaven could do
contrary to his will, and there is one to his wife, so proud
that she claimed to be addressed as Queen, exhorting her
to patience and humility, for Catherine could be frank to
bluntness, though never needlessly so, since, as she says,
" Truth is mute when it is well to be mute, and her
silence cries with the cry of patience."

The many letters to Gregory XI. treat of matters
which concerned all Christendom, while others are ad-
dressed to obscure individuals, whose souls were as
valuable in her sight as those of the greatest of her
correspondents. Her loving interest in all with whom
she came in contact appears in such letters as those " to
a father of a family," to a friar who had deserted his
convent, or to a poor sinner of the class of women who
sat by the stream of Bulicame,1 and how tenderly she
could write to her friends is shown by such counsels as
she sends to the high born young Tuscan, Neri di
Landoccio dei Pagliaresi, a man of a sensitive, self
tormenting character, the antipodes of her other young
follower, the harum-scarum, and delightful Stefano
Maconi, but equally devoted to her interests.

There is an astonishing combination of lofty spirituality
and practical sense in Catherine's letters ; they are a
striking example of the peculiar quality of Italian
mysticism which, like Wordsworth's lark, while soaring
" to the last point of vision and beyond," still kept its
nest upon the ground in mind. German mysticism is

1 Inf. cxiv. 79-80.

1

4

A THORNY PATH 69

touched with gloom ; French mysticism often runs into
vagueness and sentiment ; Italian mysticism combines the
Leah and Rachel of Dante's vision. It took indeed many
forms and was found in characters as different as light
and dark in the Trecento, and sometimes those have been
called mystics who had small right to the name. Catherine
lived in ineffable communion with the unseen, that
true communion which consists not only in rapturous
prayer and meditation, but in perception of being heard
and answered ; to her to die seemed gain, because she
would so come nearer to Christ. Petrarch has been
counted a mystic too, and in certain moods he also wished
to die, and be free from temptations and weaknesses, but
nothing could be less like true mysticism than his oc-
casional fits of nervous discomfort as to how his account
stood with Heaven. He knew nothing of that inner life,
that contemplation of God which the real mystic exists in,
and which breathes through Catherine's letters, side by
side with excellent commonsense which must strike even
those to whom their spirituality may not appeal. For
instance, writing to a friar troubled in mind by having
read an unorthodox book, she shows no displeasure at his
weak faith, but simply bids him, if he is incapable of
meeting the arguments, to turn his thoughts elsewhere,
and not afflict himself, since there had been no intentional
sin in reading the book. Again, though herself full of
enthusiasm, and knowing well how valuable a quality it
is, when she saw danger of it running riot she checked it
at once, as in her letter to Donna Agnesca da Toscanelli,
who appears to have been of an hysterical temperament,
craving visions and revelations and exaggerated penances,
a mood common enough in the Middle Ages, where she
warns her almost sternly to control herself. Nor did she
recommend pilgrimages, nor go on any herself. She was
emphatic on home duties ; we find her reminding her

70 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

friend Alessia dei Saracini to plan out her day, talk with
moderation, and whatever she did or did not do, to come
in of an evening and look after her old mother, " without
negligence, providing what she needed."

Gossip is strongly condemned by her ; she must have
approved of the statute forbidding women to stand at
their doors with their distaffs, the aim being to prevent
chatter, though no statute ever framed can bridle tongues,
whether male or female, unless indeed it were to prevent
distaffs being used as weapons in a quarrel.

She is equally frank in writing to great potentates as
to her own disciples, and how much courage this implied
it is now hard to realise. Giovanna of Naples was quite
capable of having any one who offended her assassinated,
and her support of the crusade which was one of Catherine's
dearest hopes was all important, yet the letters to her,
though courteous, for Catherine does not forget that she
is addressing royalty, have a note of warning worthy of
a prophet of Israel, and some to great and formidable,
ecclesiastics are as severe as Dante's memorable epistle
to the Conclave of Carpentras. All the letters are
counsels and exhortations ; they deal with souls,
not accidental circumstances. She tells nothing of her
impressions in her voyage to Gorgona, though that her
first sight of the sea impressed her deeply is evident from
the many metaphors taken from it which after that time
appear in her writings ; nothing of what she saw in Pisa
or Florence ; there is no word of what she thought of
Avignon, or the Pope who to her was " the Christ on
earth." We look in vain, and are tempted to regret that
it is so, for any of the personal details which her con-
temporary, the B. Colombini freely gives in such letters of
his as have been preserved. He tells of the troublesome
enthusiasm of his women disciples ; of his ill-reception on
the lands once his ; of ill health, of his escape from ruin ;

A THORNY PATH 71

of his want of faith in rubbing his feet with pitch to make
walking barefoot less painful, and how he was deservedly
pricked with thorns, while his companion, who had greater
faith and used no precautions did not feel them at all.
But for a feminine grace and tact in them, Catherine's
letters might have been written by a man, and Colombini's
by a woman. In him we have the revivalist, with the
fervid ejaculations, the emotional appeals which the
personality of the man made at the time all powerful ; in
hers there are arguments and thoughts, infused at times
by a passion the more felt that it is restrained. Her mind
was full of her two beautiful dreams of a reformed Church
and peace in Italy ; she not only forgets personal matters,
but only alludes to politics when they concern these great
hopes. Possibly however letters on less weighty matters
were not preserved or went astray, like those entrusted
to the careless hands of Alexander VII. by the Certosini
of Pavia ; it is difficult to believe that one described as con-
stantly gay and smiling should never relax into playfulness
with any correspondent, but on the other hand her time
was so overfilled, and she was so constantly appealed to
by high and low that she might have forestalled the
humorous complaint of San Bernadino, who exclaims,
" You will have me be Pope, Bishop, Rector, Officer of
Mercanzia — do everything which is other people's work !
I cannot do everything, not I ! I might be studying, and
composing a fine discourse to the honour of God, and
here are you stopping me so that I cannot study, and all
because I have to listen to you ! "

But perhaps the chief reason for lack of personal de-
tails in Catherine's correspondence was indifference to
what concerned herself, and absorption in the important
matters of which she wrote. Moreover, letters were taken
seriously in her day, and seldom written unless there was
a real call to do so. It is true that Petrarch's are full of

72 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

small details, but the admiration which surrounded him
induced both himself and his friends to believe that
nothing that concerned him could be trivial, and his
letters were in fact compositions intended for posterity,
touched and retouched as carefully as were his poems,
while Catherine did not study composition at all ; she
only sought to convey her meaning in the clearest, most
forcible way, with the result that they count among
Italian classics. She dictated, and here and there the
secretary may have shaped a sentence or suggested an
allusion, but the stamp of individuality is on all her
letters. If ever a thought was taken from something she
had heard or read, she made it her own. Another great
mystic with whom she has much in common had written,
" Thou hast created man for Thyself, and he cannot rest
until he rests in Thee," l but it was out of her own
energetic conviction that Catherine declared, " Man is
placed above all created beings, and therefore he cannot
rest nor be satisfied save in something greater than him-
self. But there is nothing greater than man save God,
and therefore it is that God alone can satisfy him."

It is uncertain whether occasional coincidences between
passages in her letters, and others in the Divina Corn-
media imply a knowledge of the poem. Her secretary,
Neri di Landoccio, was a student of Dante, and in spite of
the hard words flung by the great poet at Siena, the city
was proud of having sheltered him, and preserved the tra-
dition that he had leant for long hours on the window
ledge of a shop in the Campo, absorbed in a book which
he had found there, all unconscious that a great tumult
was going on around him. But probably such coinci-
dences merely arise from a likeness in the line of thought
of the two great mystics. To both came celestial visions ;
both felt, as men now have almost forgotten to feel, the sin-

1 St Augustine.

A THORNY PATH 73

fulness of sin ; both were keenly aware of the greatness and
responsibility of the gift of free will. To both God was
the sea which surrounds all things, itself motionless ; the
food which satisfies, yet never satiates. Both were pro-
foundly convinced that He can do as He will, and can
only will what is good. Each denounces simony, the
vices of the clergy, and the decadence of the Mendicant
Orders with equal passion, and to both the absence of the
Popes from Rome seemed fatal to Christendom. They
are alike too in their want of political foresight, both
looking back instead of forward. Each was in certain
ways singularly emancipated from the prejudices of the
day, yet each was shackled by them.

But there is one remarkable difference between these
lofty spirits, alike in so much. We look in vain in Dante
for that intense personal love of Christ which was the main-
spring of Catherine's life. There is acknowledgment of
the Saviour throughout the Divina Commedia, and of His
work for man, but Dante does not feel Him walking in
daylight beside him, the Lord of love, nor recognise the
guiding, prompting, restraining spirit in all events of life
as does Catherine, though both belong to the noble
company of mystics.

It is impossible to calculate the influence exerted by
Catherine's letters, but if we would measure something of
the distance between the fourteenth century and our own,
let us imagine how a modern statesman would feel on
receiving such an epistle as she addressed to the King of
France, or the magistrates of Siena — the astonished
amusement, the careless contempt, if even it were read
through, the impossibility of its stopping a war or causing
a change of policy, even though another St Catherine
wrote it ! It is very difficult to throw our minds back to
a time when such things were, and though it may be
possible to realise the active side of her character, no one

74 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

to whom mysticism is alien will ever comprehend or
believe in that contemplative side of it which made her
what she was, all earthly things being hushed for her, as
with Augustine and his mother in their ever memorable
conversation at Ostia, so that like them she would hear
the Divine voice speaking, though not through any tongue
of flesh, nor angels, nor sound of thunder, nor in the
dark riddle of a similitude, till, passing through all things
bodily, even this very heaven whence sun and moon
shine upon the earth, soaring as it were beyond her own
mind, she touched Divine wisdom, and returned to earth
with a sigh.1

1 Confessions of St Augustine.

CHAPTER IV

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER

NO address or discourse made by Catherine has been
preserved, but that at times she spoke in public
is certain. Raimondo mentions having seen her
surrounded by a crowd of over a thousand people, citizens
of Siena and others, come in from the surrounding
country, sometimes from distant places, listening en-
tranced by the sweet full voice which, in common with
most speakers who have moved great audiences, she
possessed. So eloquent and persuasive, too, were her
looks and gestures that even those on the skirts of the
crowd who only heard imperfectly were often excited to
confession and repentance by the mere sight of them.
We also hear of her running out of the Fullonica, holding
up a crucifix in times of popular uprising, and calming
the angry mob by her expostulations, and Stefano
Maconi relates that when she visited Florence at the time
that it lay under the interdict which roused such furious
resentment that the city all but forestalled the schism of
Urban VI.'s time, on the very day she arrived, she wrote
three "noteworthy and most beautiful discourses, and all the
city was moved, and admired her wholesome counsel. And
those who had despised the Interdict began to observe it."
But if she had habitually preached to the Sienese,
surely some of her followers would have recorded
something of what she said, especially as sermons had
then a weight and importance only lessened when print-

75

76 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

ing made books generally accessible. The sermon of a
popular preacher was an event that stirred a whole city.
San Bernadino preached in the Campo four hours at a
time to an unwearied audience, who stood around to hear
him. Fra Filippo's " Assempri " were listened to with
equal eagerness, and no one seems to have been startled
by them, though the crudeness of speech and topics is
such, even for that age, that when he rebukes mothers for
letting their daughters lie in bed instead of bringing them
at dawn to hear him, we incline to think that it was the
best thing they could do.

We can hardly imagine Catherine denouncing the
vices of her fellow-townsmen as Mendicant Friars might
and did. Plain spoken as her letters are, there is a
dignified modesty and womanly restraint in them which
forbids such a suggestion, though she did not shrink
from the frankest remonstrance when occasion called for
it, nor did she speak in vain, and she became more and
more of a peace-maker in public and private matters,
following the good example of the Order to which she
belonged, and which was honourably renowned through-
out the Trecento as using every effort to reconcile families
at feud, and check the civic tumults which perpetually
broke out in every city. So widely did her name become
known, that Gregory XI. sent her permission, unasked,
to go through the Sienese territory attended by three
friars, who had special privileges of absolution, to speak
to the people who flocked to hear her, and beseech her
to cure their diseases.

To one of these friars special interest attaches, for he
had begun by altogether disbelieving in Catherine, and
was a man of great weight and importance, being Prior
of Lecceto, the very ancient Augustinian monastery at
some little distance from Siena, built among the ilex
woods whence it took its name. By birth he belonged

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 77

to the noble Sienese family of Tantucci. " This ignorant
woman goes about misleading people with her false
expositions of Holy Scripture," he said to his friend Fra
Gabriello of Volterra, also a man famed for learning, and
one of the best preachers of his day, " she is leading other
souls with her own to hell, but we shall take such order
in the matter that she shall see her error." " So," says
Francesco Malavolti, " after many such talks, they
determined to go together on a certain day and by
hard questions in theology close her mouth and shame
her. But the Holy Spirit who spoke by that virgin
disposed things otherwise." And he tells how the two —
Tantucci, commonly called Giovanni III., because he was
the third of that name who had been Prior of Lecceto,
and Fra Gabriello, who held no less an office than that of
Minister Provincial of the Minorites, went to the Fullonica,
where, as it chanced, were a number of Catherine's close
friends, Delia Fonte, Landoccio, Alessia and Lisa
Benincasa among them, together with Malavolti himself,
standing round her and listening to what she said.
Suddenly her face lit up and she exclaimed, " Blessed be
Thou, O sweet and eternal Bridegroom, who findest out
so many new ways to lead souls unto Thyself! " The
startled company stood wondering, and Delia Fonte bade
her explain what she meant. " Father," she answered,
" you will presently see two great fish caught in the nets,"
and almost at the same moment the two theologians were
announced. She went to meet them with great respect,
begging them to be seated, while all the rest stood
anxiously waiting to see what would happen, well aware
that this visit implied something serious. Without delay
" the two masters, like raging lions," began to ask the
most difficult theological questions in the most difficult
way they could devise. Catherine paused to collect
herself before replying, looking up to heaven ; then she

78 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

spoke, and they sat amazed at her pertinent answers.
Finally she turned on them, with justifiable indignation,
thinking perhaps how her Master had been questioned by
those who came not to learn but to seek to ensnare Him,
and told the two that they were utterly indifferent as to
what truth might be, and only sought to win praise and
honour from men. " My Fathers, do this no more for
the love of Jesus crucified," she concluded, and they sat
conscience stricken. Nay, more, Gabriello of Volterra,
who was living in luxury absolutely contrary to his Rule,
snatched the keys from his girdle, exclaiming, "Is there
any here who for the love of God will go and give away
all I have in my cell ? " and two present accepted the
commission, going straightway to Lecceto, and distributing
his books to the students there, while his bed with its
silken curtains and other things were given to the poor.
All that he kept was his breviary. Prior Giovanni showed
his change of mind even more unmistakably, for he
became Catherine's firm friend, accepting, as we have
seen, the office of constantly attending her in her
missionary labours, following her to Avignon, and going
with her to Rome when Urban VI. called her thither,
and he was moved to wrath which he could hardly
restrain when certain prelates, who believed in her as
little as he had once done himself tried to entangle her
just as he and his companion had done. It is impossible
to read the account of the scene without a smile.
Another very special privilege was granted her while at
Avignon, namely, to have a chapel in her house where
she and any others who desired it might hear Mass and
communicate, a very unusual permission, probably granted
that she might avoid the notice and comment excited by
the rapt, ecstatic condition in which she would fall at such
times. As the altar at which Mass was celebrated was
portable, she could have it with her if she left Siena.

ST. CATHERINE'S HOUSE AT SIENA

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 79

The room in the Fullonica where it stood is still shown,
but it and the whole house is so changed from its old
state that it is very difficult to imagine it inhabited by St
Catherine and the busy family of Giacome Benincasa.

It may be asked how a woman with no education in
childhood, and who learned to read only after she had
grown up, at a time too when books were rare and costly,
could have acquired knowledge enough to encounter men
like the Prior of Lecceto on his own ground. Some
explanation is found in her remarkable memory and a
mind extraordinarily susceptible to spiritual things, and
free from any distracting interests until the sphere of
politics claimed her against her will. And she had learned
friends who talked to and read to her. What she read
to herself we do not know ; it is doubtful if she owned
a Bible ; if she read the Scriptures to herself it was
probably in one of those selections of passages from them
which were familiar to the Middle Ages — the ex-Dominican
Ochino of her own contrada, speaks of using one even at
his later date, but that she was more or less acquainted
with them, and with the writings of the Fathers is clear.
But her thoughts are not borrowed ones ; she drew from
her own experiences and revelations — revelations which
gradually seemed to her to be given by her Lord in
person. At first she says herself that she knew her
visions were framed by her own mind, but her intense
realisation of them gradually embodied them in visible
shapes. She so dwelt on the goodness and tenderness of
her Master, and desired so passionately to have com-
munion with Him that soon it seemed perfectly natural
He should come to her, and speak face to face. Such
experiences are found among other mystics ; they exactly
correspond with those of an earlier follower of St
Dominic, — also a striking personality, — Suso.

Neither Raimondo da Capua nor Caffarini, who helped

8o SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

him to compile his biography of Catherine, and wrote this
" legenda minore " himself, explain the rapid rise of her
influence. We see her ill-treated, disbelieved in, slandered
to the point of nearly being expelled from among the
Mantellate, then, almost without apparent transition, one
of the most powerful influences in Siena, with an enthusi-
astic following, called in to mediate in trade disputes,
family quarrels, and even in the bloody feuds which were
destroying Siena. Her missionary work is so well known
that from Avignon come special privileges to forward it.
One of her best biographers,1 it is true, places this honour
after her return from that city, but as far as we know she
made no journeys in Sienese territory except in early days.
No doubt her healing powers had been talked of through-
out Siena, as would be the story of Tuldo, but she seems
to have become almost at once famous far beyond her
native city. Her letters show how many women, and of
what various ranks, looked to her for counsel and
guidance, but far more striking is it to see how in a
day when women were of so little account, eminent men
held it an honour to call Catherine their Mother and
mistress. She had a link with the Gesuati, an order
founded by Giovanni Colombini, and so called because the
name of Jesus was ever on their lips ; her sister-in-law
Lisa was of this family, and so was B. Catarina, one of
her dearest friends, of whom it was told that as she lay
dying she exclaimed, " O blessed Catherine ! O Giovanni,
father of my soul, my sweetest patrons, I come to you,"
and with a great joy on her countenance, passed away.
That Catherine should have had many friends among the
Gesuati is then natural, but besides these we see her
looked up to by monks and hermits all over Italy.
Besides the hermits of Lecceto, there was the good Abbot
of St Antimo, whom we find her defending from injustice

1 A. Drane.

8i

at the hands of the Magistracy of Siena, the monks of
Oliveto, and the rough spoken hermit, Don Giovanni delle
Celle who lived above the monastery of Vallombrosa ; the
Englishman, William Flete, who would do anything for
her except leave his ilex woods ; the Spanish director of
St Brigitta, the Prior of the rocky islet of Gorgona, who
asked her to address his Carthusians, and many more.

Even more remarkable is it to find learned laymen seek
her as adviser and guide, men like the Rector of the
Hospital of La Scala, Vanni, Captain of the people,
Guidini, who held an important post in the magistracy,
together with outsiders from Lucca and Pisa, Milan and
other places at so early a time in her career. They, no
doubt, were the more struck by her because in the Middle
Ages women in religious orders were rarely intellectual.
Indeed, study at that time formed no part of the life of
either the Dominicans or Franciscans, though naturally
they had more knowledge how to deal with their fellow-
men, were more in touch with new ideas and were less
conservative than the monks. When Catherine sends two
novices to the Prior of San Benedetto, we find her asking
as a favour that they may be allowed to study, assuring
the Prior that he will find this concession repaying.
There were no mediaeval nuns in Italy like the Bene-
dictine St Hildegard, who in her time was almost as highly
esteemed as Catherine, no Dominican like Mhelchtild of
Magdeburg, whose strictures on the clergy brought her
into such trouble, and whose writings, collected under the
title of the " Flowing light of Divinity " ranked high in
mediaeval religious literature.

But it was not through a reputation for learning that
Catherine gained her ascendancy. It was not by what
she wrote, nor even mainly by what she said that she
impressed those around her. Her astonishing spiritual
vitality made itself felt on all who came in contact with

82 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

her, sometimes indeed rousing opposition, but oftener
calling out a sympathetic response, and the excellence of
her advice was soon recognised. The women of Siena
quickly learned to turn to her when members of their
families were ill to deal with. Among those who early
sought her help was the young widow of noble birth,
Alessia dei Saracini, who lived with an old father-in-law,
and who became Catherine's chosen friend. Hoping that
her influence might soften the old man, and induce him
to live at peace, Alessia invited her to stay some weeks
with them, and Catherine consented. That he liked her
may be assumed, since he let her live under his roof, and
no doubt she met his rough mockery gaily and tactfully,
for after a while he rejoiced both her and his daughter-in-
law by listening attentively to what she said, and finally
declaring himself disposed to confess and attend Mass, but
with the reservation that he must be allowed to kill a
certain Prior whom he hated with all his heart. Catherine
could by no means consent to this, and in the end her
remonstrances prevailed, and he went in a peaceable spirit
to the church where his enemy officiated, with his hawk
on his fist. Seeing him enter, the Prior fled, and even
when assured that he was alone and unarmed would only
see him in the presence of a number of friends, and
watched his approach suspiciously as he advanced,
courteously bending his head, and declaring that he had
come to make friends, in token of which he offered him
his favourite hawk. This was a real sacrifice, the more
that he was a poor man, and the Prior, also devoted
to falconry, accepted the bird joyfully. Returning to
Catherine the old noble asked what he should do next,
and she bade him confess to a certain friar, which he did.
In consideration of his repentance and great age no
penance was set him, but this did not quite please
Catherine, who bade him rise early for a certain number

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 83

of days, and go to the Duomo, where he must repeat a
hundred aves and Paternosters, counting them on a
knotted cord, which he obediently did.

Perhaps a more difficult case was laid before her by
Donna Onora, one of the great Guelf house of Tolomei,
a good and religious woman who had small comfort in
her son Giacomo or her daughters, girls who belonged to
the fashionable class, whom San Bernadino denounced as
going to church " bedizened, bedecked, begarlanded like a
madonna Smirlardina," though one hopes they did not
deserve his concluding words, " while at home they were
slovens." Troubled by their worldly life, their mother
asked Catherine to use her influence with them — the
Popolana and the daughters of one of the proudest
families in Siena ! What passed is not recorded, but so
strongly were they moved by what she said that shortly
after they became Mantellate. Giacomo was at this time
absent from Siena ; on learning what had happened he was
as furious as was Corso Donati on hearing that his sister
Piccarda had taken the veil, l and he hurried back to take
vengeance on all concerned, especially Catherine. His
mother in great alarm sent to warn her, but she calmly
replied that she should pray for him, and begged two of
her friends to reason with him. At first, blind and deaf
with rage he would hear nothing that they could say, but
to their astonishment his anger suddenly cooled, and
finally he agreed to let his sisters follow the way that they
had chosen. Late in life he became a Tertiary, and
another brother became a Friar Preacher.

We find Catherine also called in by the Salimbeni, as
a friend and honoured guest, not to the satisfaction of the
magistracy, for though the head of that powerful family
had given proof of his loyalty to Siena, all the members
were not so trustworthy, nor was it forgotten that the

1 Par. c. Hi. 11. 103-8.

84 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Emperor Charles IV. took refuge in their palace at the
time of his abortive attempts on the liberties of Siena.
The chief of the consorteria or clan Giovanni Agnolo,
though head of the Ghibelline party in the city, had caused
himself to be enrolled among plebeian families that he
might take some part in the government from which as a
" Grande " he was excluded, and he was regarded as a
great and illustrious man who had served his country, i.e.
city, well. l Unfortunately for Siena and his family he
was killed some time later by a fall from his horse as he
returned from an embassy to Lombardy, and the want of
his sense and strong hand was soon felt. Quarrels arose
between different branches of the family, an especially
troublesome member of which was Cione di Landro whose
jealousy had been excited against the chief of his house
by the Republic having given him several important castles
in token of confidence and gratitude for his services.

Cione was a born plotter, and one of the least estimable
of a family in which were found great virtues and great
vices. At the time when Catherine was called in he
had endangered himself by claiming certain lands which
his family were resolved to keep, and his wife Stricca
implored Catherine to come to their castle at Castiglion-
cello di Trinoro and mediate between Cione and the
present head of the clan, Agnolino, knowing that she had
great influence with him. Catherine came, heard all that
there was to say for Cione, and then mounted her donkey,
and, attended by some of her " college " as she would
call those friends and followers who went with her on her
journeys, took the steep way to Rocca d' Orcia, then
called Rocca di Fontennano, where the great stronghold
of the Salimbeni stood on a rock overlooking the valley
of the Orcia, with the river of the same name flowing
down to join the Ombrone.

1 Malavolti.

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 85

She was warmly welcomed by the widowed Contessa
Bianca, " a lady of great virtues and gifts, devoted to St
Catherine," now mourning not only her noble husband,
but a murdered brother, lord of Foligno, whence his family
had been driven out. Here too was her son, head of all
the Salimbeni, the fiery Agnolino, whose sword was never
long in the sheath, and his two young sisters, Benedetta
and Isa, both widows and both with sad histories, as
indeed most women had in those days.

Catherine was welcome to all, and her pleading brought
peace between Agnolino and his troublesome kinsman,
but her influence was less welcome when it took the form
of encouraging Benedetta to take the veil instead of
making a new marriage. Isa was already a Tertiary of
St Francis, but her admiration for Catherine led her to
propose changing to being one of St Dominic's instead.
Catherine threw cold water on this suggestion. " Better
stay under one rule than change about," she said. Never-
theless we find Isa later as a Mantellata. That she, like
her sister, had difficulty in gaining permission to renounce
the world may be gathered from a letter of Catherine's
which seems to be addressed to her, though Isa or Lisa
was too common a name to prove that it was sent to
the daughter of the Salimbeni. The burden of it is
" They say. What say they ? Let them say." There
was a third sister, Pentasilea, happily married to one
of the Farnese family To her Catherine writes in a
different strain. Her she bids not to make idols of her
children, but to reprove and chasten when needful, taking
them regularly to mass and confession, and caring both
for their souls and bodies — as Catherine grew older and
her experience widened she laid comparatively little
stress on those austerities which in the first enthusiasm
of youth she had thought so valuable. She continued
them for herself, but often warned others not to ex-

86 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

aggerate them, nor think they were worth anything in
themselves, but only as means to an end. Such practices
indeed are no necessary part of the mystic life, though
suffering always is, together with the will to suffer. There
was a time when morbid fear of all that had given her
pleasure turned the most innocent things into temptations,
when she shrank from even the caresses of her mother,1
and her one thought was the desire to be chastised for
her sins, a state perilously near insanity, but her call to
active life saved her, together with her robust common-sense,
and while seeking purity as fervently as ever, she re-
covered mental balance, and saw good where good was,
and that there was no one measure for men. And now
she bids Pentasilea bring up her children healthily, and
look after their physical needs, " even the beasts do that
much," she writes, but above all things she must keep
God before her eyes, and do her duty in the holy estate
of matrimony. Catherine never cried down marriage,
but upheld it as sacred, though less blessed than celibacy,
a nun's life being more desirable for the soul. Certainly
the convent was often a harbour of safety for both soul
and body, lax as the discipline was in many. Ochino,
who had left the Roman Communion and wrote in an
even laxer day, could declare when old, exiled and treated
as a heretic, " To this day I do not regret having spent
part of my life in a monastery, for there I was preserved
from sins into which as a layman I should probably have
fallen," and he goes on to say that " grant there are
errors in the scholastic teaching, and that pupils waste
much time on things which do not lead to salvation, yet
many seeds of truth are planted which may open their
minds to a right understanding of Holy Scripture."

While at Rocca d' Orcia Catherine cured many sick,
and the great courtyard was crowded with those who

1 Flete.

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 87

came to seek her aid. Among these was a case of
lunacy, or possession, as all such were then held to be.
It is remarkable that the only occasions mentioned on
which she shrank from exerting her healing powers was
in cases of madness, whether because she thought that
she came in contact with fiends, or that some instinct
of danger lurking in her own highly wrought and im-
aginative temperament made her recoil it is impossible
to say, but she showed both horror and anger when
forced to deal with lunacy or hysteria, though three cases
are recorded which she treated successfully. To satisfy
the modern mind, these should have been studied and
followed up, but that was not the method of the Trecento,
and there is little evidence as to whether these and
other cures were permanent.

She passed from the Rocca d' Orcia to the abbey of
St Antimo, where the abbot was her close friend, and a
valuable helper when she came to found her convent of
Belcaro, but he was a reformer of morals, and conse-
quently unpopular among his monks and fellow priests,
and Catherine wrote with some indignation to the
Magistracy of Siena, " I hear from the Archpriest of
Montepulciano and others that you have passed an unjust
judgment on the Abbot of St Antimo, a great servant of
God. He has been here a long while, and if you knew
him better you would not suspect him. I beg you there-
fore not to trouble him, but rather, if need be, to help
him. You complain that priests and clerics are not
corrected, and then when you get some one ready to do
it, you complain and hinder him." The Archpriest was
an enemy of the Abbot, and probably had told of the
unfavourable judgment with satisfaction ; Catherine knew
him well, for she often went to Montepulciano, a place
not far from Lake Thrasymene, where in after days two
famous men were born, Poliziano and Cardinal Bellarmine.

88 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Two nieces of Catherine were in the convent there, one
of whom seems to have needed a good deal of advice.

Her letter goes on to touch another knotty point.
The Magistracy of Siena never liked her to be away
from the city, where she was all important, least of all
when she was among those whom they suspected ; they
had sought to recall her from among the Salimbeni, and
instead of returning she was spending six weeks at
Montepulciano. Her mother, too, alarmed by the dis-
content in the city, and always dissatisfied when left
behind by Catherine, wrote to desire her to come back.
Catherine was distressed but answered that she could
not come. " I beg, though I may stay longer than you like,
yet you will be content, for I can do no otherwise. I
think, if you knew all, you yourself would send me here.
I am going to end a great scandal if I can."

But she gives no explanation beyond this, and we
can only guess that there was something beyond the
quarrel among the Salimbeni, as this was public news.
Perhaps it had to do with the business concerning the
nuns of St Agnes in whose community her nieces were,
to which she alludes in writing to the Magistrates. To
them she takes an almost imperious tone which shows
how strong her position was, for under the rule of the
Reformatori short work was usually made with any who
disobeyed their orders. But Catherine was beyond their
power.

" As to my return with my college," she writes, " I hear
there are murmurs and suspicions on that head too, but
do not know whether I ought to believe it. If you care
as much about your affairs as we do, you and all the
citizens of Siena should shut your ears to such things.
We labour ceaselessly for your benefit, sparing ourselves
no fatigue. I have so little virtue that I do nothing
perfectly, but others, better than I, are doing their

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 89

utmost. ... I see that the devil is very wrath at the
loss of souls which he will suffer by this journey. I have
come here only to feed on souls and take them out of
his hands, and would sacrifice a thousand lives if I had
them. I shall therefore go and act in whatever way the
Holy Spirit may inspire me. Be not weary of my letters,
but read them with patience." This is a very high tone
for the dyer's daughter to take with the worshipful
Signoria. The usual want of dates makes it impossible
to fix the date of these visits, but they probably took
place before Catherine's first visit to Pisa in 1375. As
a general rule she put accusations and calumny aside as
not worth noticing, but suspicion of her patriotism hurts
her keenly, and there is an unusual note of irony in other
words written to the Magistrates, " I am sorry that my
fellow citizens take such trouble to judge me ; it really
seems as if they had nothing to do but to speak ill of me
and my companions," and then, with her usual humility
she says, "In my case they are right, for I am full of
faults, but wrong in the way they judge the others.
However, we shall overcome all things with patience."

To one of her followers in Siena who wrote begging
her to come back she tells him that she will do so as
soon as she can, and reminds him that it must have
been hard for the Apostles to cease living together and
with Mary, and go different ways, " yet did they renounce
that happiness to seek the honour of God and the salva-
tion of souls, and when Mary left them, did not suppose
she loved them less or forgot them." The lamentations
of her disciples in Siena and elsewhere when they were
deprived of her charming presence added not a little to
her difficulties.

A reconciliation even more important than that among
the Salimbeni was effected by Catherine in Siena itself,
and though it took place at a comparatively late date in

90 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

her public career, it finds its appropriate place here. In
the very heart of the plague in 1374 one of those feuds
so ruinous to Siena and all concerned had broken out
between the Maconi on one side and the formidable
Tolomei, backed by the Rinaldini, on the other. Friends
of both the hostile parties vainly tried to reconcile them ;
the feud raged on. At length a hope of peace appeared,
and, as usual in such cases, the hand that held out the
olive branch was that of a woman, and it belonged to the
mother of Stefano Maconi, a gay and very popular young
noble, the life-long friend of Caffarini, who had been
dragged unwillingly into the feud, but felt it a point
of honour to keep it up. Despairing of other help, his
mother suggested calling in Catherine Benincasa ; up to
this time she had had no acquaintance with the Maconi,
but her success in making peace was known, and her
intimacy with the Tolomei gave reason to hope that they
would listen to her, and where they went the Rinaldini
would follow. The proud young noble did not approve
of the suggestion. " A woman of no rank or authority,
who had got a reputation for sanctity by sitting in
churches and telling her beads ! " However, he was
persuaded to visit her, and the effect of her gracious
charm was immediate. He felt that " the finger of God
was there." She appointed a day for a solemn reconcilia-
tion of the hostile families in the Church of San
Cristofero which stands in the little square close to the
grim Tolomei palace, with the wolf of Siena looking down
from its column. But though the Maconi duly appeared,
neither the Tolomei nor the Rinaldini were there. This
was a new insult, and it speaks unmistakably for the
honest desire of the Maconi to make peace that they did
not depart at once. " They will not listen to me,"
Catherine said on finding what had happened, " well, then,
they shall listen to God," and she knelt before the altar

BRONZE RELIQUARY OF ST. CATHERINE AT SIENA

CATHERINE AS PEACEMAKER 91

in fervent prayer, her upraised face illumined by a heavenly
light. Moved by an impulse which they could^not under-
stand, the members of the other families who had been
deputed to treat with the Maconi came from their palazzi,
and entered the church, sullen and ready rather to offer
insults than to give and accept pardon, and as they came
in their eyes fell on Catherine, praying for the city dear
to them all and for good will and brotherly love among
the citizens, so lost in supplication that she was unaware
of their entrance and that the Maconi were gazing at her.
Moved and touched, these others too looked, and were
ashamed of their thoughts of vengeance, and held out
friendly hands to their late enemies, and for a time Siena
had peace.

Many other private enmities were stayed by Catherine,
but this was the greatest, and one unexpected result there
was not altogether welcome to Stephen's parents — there
was a father alive, but the mother seems to have been
the leading spirit — the brilliant young nobleman devoted
himself to Catherine, acting as one of her secretaries,
helping her in every way he could, careless of all else so
that he could be near her and help in her good works,
and quite indifferent to the mockery of his friends who
laughed at him as " be-Catherined," and sought to draw
him back to his old careless life in their company. It
was well for him that he resisted. The singular power,
call it thought reading or what one will, which Catherine
undoubtedly possessed, enabled her to discover that he
had been led through sheer thoughtlessness to join in a
conspiracy against the Government by contemporaries of
his no older nor wiser than he. " O Stefano, my son,
what evil are you plotting in your heart ? Is it thus
you make God's house into a workshop for treason ? " she
asked. The conspirators were accustomed to meet in a
vault under one of the churches ; the plot was discovered,

92 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and the vault closed up, and Stefano's family had reason
to thank Catherine for having detached him from them.
After this time he appears at almost every step of her
career, gay, loving, and a madcap, who delighted and
shocked the " college " by turns.

CHAPTER V

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN

THE life of Catherine Benincasa was interwoven of
three distinct threads, namely contemplation, active
charity and self-immolation. The first and last are
constant in the histories of mystics of all creeds, the latter
often in an extraordinary degree, as in devotees of some of
the sects of India, in the mediaeval saints of whom Peter of
Alcantara may be taken as a type, or the German mystic
Suso, in Catherine's own century, or the much later
founder of the Sacre Cceur, devoured, as she would declare,
by an unassuageable fever for suffering. The present
century revolts from pain, and the tortures which minds
like these inflict on themselves appear absurd and
grotesque. To those who were or are possessed with the
longing for them, pain appears in quite another light, and
their self-immolation, though it may break physical laws
now recognized as much God's as are moral ones, and is
apt to lead to perilously morbid conditions of mind, has
a claim to veneration, and a right to be understood.
Should they not, they argue, seek to enter into something
of what their Lord bore for them ? Is it not possible to
come nearer to Him there : — Might it not be that
voluntary suffering expiates sin in themselves and others ?
Can it not help to free the soul from the shackles of the
flesh ? Again, in the Middle Ages when men's passions
were so strong and so unbridled that the body might well
be regarded as a wild beast which must be subdued by

94 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

force lest it should kill the soul, mortification had its
necessary place. Dante, who soared above his contem-
poraries like an eagle, meditated on the mystery of the
Incarnation, and thus could speak of ''the honourable body,"
but to almost everyone else in the Middle Ages it was a
thing either master or slave.

Had Catherine never left her cell, it is impossible to
say into what state of mind she would have slipped, but
her obedience to the call to an active life kept the balance
even, and shielded her from two great dangers to which
the visionary is exposed, such sensuousness as shocks us
in the rhapsodies of the nun Gertrude l and others of that
school, both mediaeval and modern, or on the other hand
from the equally painful prudery of saints who thought
that the very presence of a woman, were she their mother,
threatened their purity. There was a noble large minded-
ness in Catherine. Thrown into a world of flagrant vice
and crime, she faced it as fearlessly and as unharmed as
did Beatrice within the gates of the Inferno, and moved
in it pure as a lily. She could realise that there are
many ways of coming to God, and good in all men, a
conviction which gave her a wonderful power over sinners.
She knew too that no one system has a monopoly of
perfection. Devoted as she was to the Dominicans, she
by no means thought their rule desirable for all who chose
monastic life, and often recommended another order to
those who sought her advice. Again, almost alone in
that day she held the word " country " to mean Italy, not
merely her own city, and when appealed to by Florence
or Pisa she was just as ready to help them as if they had
been friends instead of enemies to Siena. This was a
view which exposed her to suspicion, and during the
first years of that public life which was so short and
which contained so much she was obliged more or less

1 Revelations de Ste. Gertrude, Paris, 1898.

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 95

to take account of this feeling. The Mantellate of Pisa
repeatedly urged her to visit them, but at the time there was
great tension between their city and Siena, and she found
an only too valid excuse for refusal in her ill-health. Her
splendid constitution had given way under the fatigue
and anxiety which she endured while the plague lasted.
Her austere life tried her, and she had so accustomed
herself to live almost without food that now, when
finding her abstinence provoked comment and suspicion
that she ate in secret, she would fain have eaten like
other people, but she could not do it. There was a
moment when she seemed dying, and the thought was
joy to her, but there was much work to do, and she set
her will to recover and did so to a considerable degree,
though thenceforward she lived and laboured in constant
pain which she could not always hide. Though accepting
it gladly she was learning that health and strength are
gifts from heaven, not to be cast away, and she who in girl-
hood had forced herself to drive sleep from her now wrote
to Alessia dei Saracini, " The night for vigil, when thou
hast paid the debt of sleep to thy body." To the end of
her life Catherine was growing in wisdom and spiritual
experience.

Hesitation as to going to Pisa was cut short by a com-
mand from Pope Gregory XI. to go there and undertake
certain negotiations with the magistrates, and no difficulties
were raised by the authorities in Siena, who could hope that
at the same time she might dispose the Pisans to restore
a castle in Sienese territory unjustly occupied by them,
together with the important port of Talamone. This
journey was a far more weighty matter than any one
guessed at the time, for with it Catherine stepped from
private to public life, and became a leading factor in the
sphere of politics. How early in her career she had had
any direct communication with Gregory is uncertain, but

96 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

that much earlier than would be supposed from Raimondo's
life of her she must have been recognised as important
may be gathered from the remarkable fact that as soon
as 1372 Gregory asks advice from her through his
Legate and Apostolic Nuncio in Tuscany, a kinsman of
his own whom he had made Governor of Perugia. His
letter has unfortunately disappeared, but as she says, " In
reply to the three questions which you ask on behalf of
our sweet Christ on earth," it is clear that the Legate
wrote to her at the Pope's desire. These questions were
apparently as to what measures were most necessary for
the new Pope to make, amazing as it is to find the head
of Christendom asking such advice not from his Cardinals
or his Bishops, but from a woman, and a woman of the
people. Her reply is that he must look to two great evils
which are corrupting the Church, firstly, excessive nepotism,
but this, she hopes, is beginning to disappear, thanks to
the prayers offered up that it may cease ; secondly,
slackness in checking the vices and luxury in the Church.
"In urging you to work for Holy Church," she writes,
" I was not thinking of temporal matters ; care for them
is all very well, but what you ought chiefly to labour at,
together with the Holy Father, is to do everything
possible to drive out of the sheepfold those wolves, those
demons incarnate, who think only of good cheer, splendid
feasts and superb equipages. ... I conjure you, even if
it cost your life, urge the Holy Father to stop these
iniquities, and when the time comes for choosing pastors and
cardinals, let not money and flattery and simony have any-
thing to do with their election, but beg him as far as may
be to look only to the good qualities of those proposed,
heeding not whether they be nobles or peasants."

The overtenderness of Gregory towards his relations
was already patent, and Catherine's outspoken allusion to
it must have startled the Legate, who had just benefited

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 97

by it. Whether the Pope was allowed to hear the whole
of her letter we do not know, but until the last months
of his life her honesty never offended him. In the same
year she wrote to Cardinal Pierre d'Estaing, on his ap-
pointment as Legate of Bologna, not Ostia, as by some
strange error he is called in the heading of the letters
addressed to him, added of course later, by some unknown
hand. There is an authority in her tone which confirms
the view that she was already accustomed to be heard
with respect. " Be strong in Christ, not negligent," the
dyer's daughter writes to the Cardinal Legate, "and
thereby I shall see that you are a true legate, if you long
to see the banner of holy cross at last displayed on high."

Catherine went to Pisa accompanied by her mother and
a number of her " college." She was received with almost
royal honours by the Archbishop and the head of the Re-
public, Pietro Gambacorta, a man of whom historians give
very opposite estimates, but Catherine must have met
him with the recollection in her mind of how some years
before when he and his family returned from poverty and
exile brought on them by their patriotism, even while he
knelt before the altar in the Duomo, vowing to live as a
good citizen and forget all injuries, some of his party ex-
cited the mob to set fire to the houses of his enemies, and
how he had rushed among them, and stayed the tumult
and destruction, calling to the crowd, " I have pardoned
with all my heart — I, whose father and friends died un-
justly on the scaffold. By what right chen do you refuse
to forgive ? "

He had earnestly desired Catherine's arrival, hoping that
she would quiet the factions in the city, and requested her
to live in his palace, but she was too prudent to identify
herself with any one party, and declined. Nor did she
accept the eagerly offered hospitality of the nuns who had
so often pressed her to come to them, since a convent

98 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

would not have been convenient when she had secular
visitors, and the palazzo of the Buonconti, some of whom
she already knew, and who had a cousin held in high
honour among the Dominicans, was the place where she
and her companions took up their abode. Here lived an
old mother with her four sons, who proved strong and
faithful friends. Their palazzo, near the little old Church
of Sta. Cristina, is still pointed out as the residence of
Catherine when in Pisa, but it has passed out of Buonconti
hands, and has been altered out of all likeness to its old
self. Here Catherine lived during the six months which
she spent at Pisa, and it is pleasant to know that often of
an evening her friends came there and enjoyed quiet talk
and sang and played sacred music as a relaxation from
anxious and heavy duties.

Gregory had sent her to Pisa to use all her influence
to keep the town loyal to him, for disputes between
Florence and the Papacy had already begun, and much
uneasiness was felt in Avignon. On her way she had
paused to strengthen the wavering allegiance of Lucca,
and had succeeded. To her the right course of action
seemed clear, but she experienced at once that difficulty
in making Gregory take a decisive step which was so
often to vex her heart. In what was the very first letter,
as far as is known, which she ever sent him directly she
found herself obliged to stir him on. " I beg you to send
the Lucchesi and Pisans whatever brotherly words God
may inspire you with. Help them all you can, and en-
courage them to stand firm and faithful. I am here,
doing all I can with the offenders who are leagued
against you, but they are in great perplexity, receiving no
encouragement from you, while threatened by your
enemies. However, so far they have promised nothing.
I earnestly implore you to write without delay and
kindly to Messer Gambacosta."

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 99

Delay was indeed most unwise, for both Pisa and Lucca
stood in fear of Florence, and were tempted to side with
the city which was close by, while Avignon and the Pope
were far off. Had Catherine's advice been followed, had
Gregory listened to her instead of to his Cardinals, the
impending war and the miseries of the Interdict might
have been averted, at all events for a time, but Gregory
XI. might well have said with the despair of one
who saw what his duty is without the strength to do it,
" The time is out of joint, O cursed spite that ever I was
born to set it right." Very young for his position —
barely indeed forty years of age, — feeble and of " petite
complexion," as Froissart has it, pious and devout and
learned, with a sincere wish to do right, he was neverthe-
less one in whose time Italy suffered as she had rarely
yet done, both from that misrule by foreign Legates which
drove Tuscany into rebellion, and drew some of the
hardest words from Catherine which she ever uttered, and
from the atrocities of mercenaries hired by order of the
Pope himself to coerce his Italians. A fruitful source of
weakness was also that over affection for his family which
so early called forth her warnings. In earlier life he had
been Archdeacon of Canterbury, and a close friend of
William of Wykeham, and English prelates were always
welcome at Avignon, but naturally French influence was
paramount there, and this fact worked disastrously for
Italy. One Cardinal had asserted publicly that it was un-
advisable for the world that that country should be at
peace, words which Petrarch in hot indignation reported
to Rienzi, then in the height of his brief triumph in
Rome, bidding him tell the Roman people " in what kind
of way these magnates thought of Rome and Italy."
Many Italian princes agreed with the Cardinals, and rival
commercial interests kept the cities at enmity. " All the
world was a place of shadows " of the valley of death,

ioo SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

wrote Neri di Donati in 1373, and the prospect had rather
darkened than cleared in 1375 when Catherine went to
Pisa, but she set herself undaunted to avert the threatening
disasters, though the fatigue of her journey, with the re-
ception in Pisa, and the heavy responsibilities which met
her there exhausted her afresh, and hours were spent
in simply enduring pain. All that tender care could do
for her was done in the house of the Buonconti, and on
one occasion, according to Raimondo, one of the family
bethought himself that her racking headaches might be
relieved by bathing her forehead with wine. Accordingly
he went to ask some from a merchant famed for having
the best which Spain or France could produce. " My
cask is empty," was the regretful answer, " come and see."
But on tapping the cask, wine flowed out to the surprise
of the owner, and the report that Catherine had wrought
a miracle ran through the city. The first time she
appeared afterwards in the streets a crowd gathered ;
curious faces appeared at every door and window. " Let
us see this woman who drinks no wine, yet can fill empty
casks," was the cry. Catherine, who even if she could have
done so, would certainly not have worked miracles for
her own advantage, was extremely annoyed : she stood
trembling, leaning on her mother's arm, and exclaimed,
" Lord, why dost Thou let me be put to confusion, before
the people. ... I beseech Thee, put the matter straight,
so that all this folly may cease." Raimondo adds that
almost at once the wine came to an end, and that the
dregs were almost undrinkable.

Perhaps a suspicion that they had been self-deceived
arose among the people, for, according to usual popular
justice, a reaction of disfavour set in that same day which
spread and increased. The austerity of Catherine's life,
unchanged in spite of illness and new surroundings, roused
disapproval just as at Siena ; it would have been admired

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 101

in a nun, but Catherine was not cloistered, and why should
she make herself singular ? What business had a woman
to put herself so forward ? The matter was thought so
grave that the University took it up much as Prior
Giovanni III. had done, and sent two of its members, one
an eminent physician, the other an equally eminent jurist,
who came with the pre-conceived certainty that they had
an impostor to deal with whom they should easily un-
mask. The physician was the well-known Guttabraccia,
" who lectured at Pisa with a salary of two hundred gold
florins," says Catherine's biographer with some awe.
Raimondo's style of writing is generally dry enough and
to spare, but of this scene he gives a description touched
with unconscious humour. The defeat of any who
questioned Catherine's saintliness was very sweet to
him.

Arrived at the Buonconti Palazzo the two learned
Professors asked for her, and with a feigned humility
which she perfectly understood, Guttabraccia began by
saying that he and his companion, Messer Pietro
Albizzi, having heard of her virtue and learning, were
come to seek instruction, after which he put various
questions of the kind familiar to the schoolmen, such as
how to take the statement that God spoke in order to
create the world. Had He then organs of speech ? Such
questions seem now too trivial to have been seriously
asked, but in the Trecento an unadvised reply might very
easily have been twisted into heresy, and heresy meant
being brought before the Inquisition, perhaps to the
stake. Catherine answered with a touch of irony. " I
am astonished," she said, " that you, who you say teach
others, should come to a poor woman whose ignorance
you should rather enlighten. But since you wish me
to speak, I will, so far as God enables me. What good
is it to either of us to know how He spoke to create

102 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

the world ? He is a Spirit, and the essential thing for
you and me to know is that our Lord, the Son of God,
took our nature, and lived and died for our salvation."
She went on speaking so simply and earnestly that at
last Albizzi took off his crimson velvet cap, knelt down,
and with tears begged her to forgive the treacherous
intent with which he had approached her. At his
earnest request she stood godmother to his child, and
he was ever after one of her warmest supporters. How
his companion was affected we do not hear, but had
he been equally penitent Raimondo would surely have
mentioned it.

Catherine was inclined to be amused rather than
troubled by the attacks on her, but to her friends they
were very grievous. On one occasion she noticed that
Fra Bartolomeo and Raimondo were talking apart, angry
and disturbed. She asked the cause, and they re-
luctantly read aloud part of a letter from a man well
known as religious, which went over the old ground,
bidding her go home and live quietly ; only hypocrites
sought renown, and much more, couched in rude and
wounding terms. They refused to read the whole, but
she insisted on hearing it, and then said the writer had
given good advice and must be thanked. Raimondo
indignantly said that he undertook the answer, but
Catherine assuming the authority which she could use
rather startlingly toward the man, while showing all
respect to the confessor, bade him beware of seeing evil
where none was meant, and would not allow it. She
lived by the rule which William Flete declares had been
given her direct by her Lord, who bade her be very
careful in judging others, not considering anything
sinful unless it were manifestly so, in which case she
must hate the sin, but compassionate the sinner. Nor
was she to judge actions by her own inclinations and

ST. CATHERINE RECEIVING THE STIGMATA

BV SANO UI PIETKO

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 103

views, but according to His judgment, since in His
Father's house are many mansions, and many roads lead
thither.

Illness again struck her down, and she lay so long
unconscious that all around wept over her as dead. As
before, she revived, but with bitter tears, for it seemed to
her that she had come back from Paradise. Bodily pain
continued, hand in hand with such spiritual experience as
she found no words to tell. At an earlier time Raimondo
had heard her murmuring awestruck, "Vidi arcana Dei,"
and had asked her to try to describe some of the glorious
things which she had beheld. Then as now, like Dante
before her, she had said that it was impossible. So too
that Spanish mystic, St Teresa, had said, who while
relating how in a sudden " sovereign clearness " she had
for a moment been permitted to see how all things
were contained in God, though retaining the impression,
could not convey it to others, " the view being too
subtle and delicate for the understanding to grasp it."
Such illuminations are in their very nature inarticulate,
though to those who experience them they are revelations
into " unbounded depths of truth," and they are known
to many who are mystics unawares.1

When well enough to do so Catherine spent long hours
in the Church of Sta. Cristina, and it was there that to her
inner consciousness she received the Stigmata, invisible to
human eyes, but to her awfully real.

As soon as some strength returned she began to
labour for one of the great objects of her life, a crusade
against the infidel, detestation of whom was hardly less
strong in the fourteenth than it had been in the eleventh
century when the monkish writer of a chronicle expresses
burning indignation because Beatrice, mother of the
famous Countess Matilda of Tuscany, was buried at

1 See Tennyson's Memoirs, V. ii. p. 473.

104 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Pisa, a city defiled by unbelievers come there to trade
from the East and Africa, while among the merits of
Gregory XL an ecclesiastical writer counts his causing
to be buried " the vestiges of idolatry " in the shape of
ruins of a temple of Hercules, " preferring zeal for religion
to the study of antiquity."

Pisa was the very place to stimulate thoughts of a
Crusade ; wherever the eye turned something recalled
achievements against the infidel or association with the
Holy Land. In the Duomo hung fragments of the chain
which in 1063 had closed the harbour of Palermo, but
through which the Pisans had broken, capturing six
Saracen vessels, and the Duomo itself had been built as a
thank-offering for the victory with the money obtained
by the sale of the merchandise seized on the galleys, and
the Church of San Sisto had been erected to commemo-
rate no less than four more victories. The lovely little
church of white marble now called by the name of the
Madonna della Spina, built some years before Catherine
came to Pisa, contained, as legend told, a thorn from the
Saviour's crown, brought by a Pisan merchant from the
Holy Land. When she visited the Campo Santo and its
hermits, she stood or knelt on earth which Ubaldo dei
Lanfranchi had conveyed from Palestine, which is why, as
the old sacristan used to tell the modern visitor, the
violets which bloom there are sweeter than any others.
Catherine often went there, and looked at Orcagna's
frescoes of death and judgment, and she would linger by
the Baptistery, then in progress, and talk with the work-
men employed upon it.

In the Trecento the dread of invasion by the infidel
was ever present, especially on the eastern states of
Christendom. Catherine found at Pisa the ambassador
of Eleanora, Regent of Cyprus, waiting for a favourable
wind to sail to Avignon and implore aid for his royal

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 105

mistress and her young son, whose island was so threatened
that she had placed the boy under the shield of the
Knights of Rhodes. " To-day," Catherine wrote to a
correspondent in Siena, "the ambassador of the Queen
of Cyprus visited me ; he is on his way to the Holy
Father to beg his help for the Christian lands under the
infidels." Her heart burned within her as she heard him
speak of the progress which Mahomedanism was making,
of the peril in which Constantinople and Hungary were
lying, and of the horrible fate of any Christian who fell
into the hands of the unbelievers.

There were many arguments in favour of a Crusade
besides that of driving back the infidel. Were all
Christian princes united in a holy league, wars among
them would cease, and with the Pope at their head, his
prestige, sorely lessened by his dependence on France,
would be restored, and the bands of mercenaries which
were wasting France and Italy might be employed in a
holy warfare where they might expiate their sins under
the gonfalon of the Cross, as Catherine said, using one of
her many metaphors from battle and tourney. She
longed to free Italy from them with a fervour only to be
understood when we read what contemporaries tell of
them. There was no power in the towns to deal with
them ; their existence was a proof that though every
burgher was still trained to arms, the martial spirit was
dying out in Italy and France. In Dante's time when
the citizens went out to fight, it was on foot, though
there might be a picked band of " feditori " on horseback,
such as the one in which he is said to have fought at
Campaldino. But the Freelances were heavy armed
cavalry, Bretons, Germans, Englishmen, many of them
trained from boyhood in the Hundred Years' War, who
simply rode down the infantry opposed to them. They
were hired by some city or despot as a kind of standing

106 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

army, or to fight in some campaign, and when dismissed,
unless they found another employer, preyed on the
surrounding country. Their approach caused the utmost
consternation. From the watch-towers built along the
roads near a city warning lights blazed out, such as Dante
describes as flashing from those beside Dis ; the Church
bells clashed in response ; the citizens flew to defend
their walls, and the peasants gathered up such poor
property as could be carried away, and drove their cattle
before them to the nearest castle or town. Then there
was " smoke of blazing villages," murder and plunder.
On a small scale, the scene of the flight from the
Campagna to Rome as described in Macaulay's "Horatius"
was repeated at short intervals throughout Northern and
Central Italy.

Chronicles make small mention of " the common man,"
and even Dante thinks so little about him that he does
not once appear in the " Divina Commedia," nor has
Froissart any pity for him during the Hundred Years'
War, but it was above all the peasantry who suffered in
the warfare of those days. Catherine knew it well ; it
was not only in Val di Chiana, but in many other parts
of Sienese territory that the Freelances " took very great
spoil of prisoners, and left neither flock nor herd, whether
oxen for ploughing, cows, sheep, swine or horses ... so
that in Torista there remained scarce three yoke of oxen."

Writing somewhat earlier, the Parmese chronicler,
Salimbene, gives a yet more graphic description, telling
how even near towns the labourers only dared to work
when protected by an armed guard, for the Freelances
would swoop down, and take men, and carry them to
their dungeons, and those who did not ransom them-
selves they would hang up by feet or hands, or pull out
their teeth. For they were crueller than fiends, and in
those days to see an unknown man coming was as if one

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 107

saw the devil. For every man suspected the other, lest
he might capture him and carry him to prison, and the
land had become a desert wherein was neither labourer
nor traveller.

The rustic population was forced to take refuge in
towns, and great tracts of land went out of cultivation ;
birds and beasts alone increased, the wolves growing so
bold that they constantly carried off children, slinking in
the dusk into towns, and even attacking grown men who,
having arrived too late to pass the city gates, had to sleep
outside the walls, in or under their carts.

Catherine's conviction that there was good in all
men was never more strikingly shown than in her con-
fident appeal to the leaders of these soldiers of fortune to
join the Crusade. When Palmerina repented of her
slanders and publicly owned her offence, Catherine had
recognised the nobility latent in her character, and prayed
that she might be enabled to see souls as they really
were. That the discernment of spirits, whether they were
good or bad, was hers in an extraordinary degree there is
ample evidence. Raimondo, good simple man, was re-
peatedly deceived by fair appearances, but Catherine never.
If there were anything to appeal to in those with whom
she had to do, she seized upon it, and therefore could
write as she did to one of the most formidable leaders of
Freelances, known in Italian chronicles as Giovanni
Aguto, Hawkwood, Sir Giovanni del Falcone, and other
varieties of his name. He led the White Company,
composed of " devilish and infernal men, of whom the
Captain was a very wicked English knight," wrote Fra
Filippo d'Aguzzi. In 1367 Siena had sent out troops to
attack them, only to be driven back in headlong flight,
and it cost the city many golden florins to be rid of him
and his company. Florence too, with all her advantages
over Siena, found it advisable to have him as friend

io8 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

rather than foe. His equestrian portrait may be seen
on one of the walls of the Duomo, painted by Paolo
" Uccello," a proof that he served the fair city faith-
fully. And in the English College at Rome a small
fresco placed in the chapel shows Catherine giving a
letter intended for him to Raimondo, while in the
distance appears the mounted figure of the Condottiere
himself.

Catherine's associations with him could not have been
pleasant, but there is no bitterness in her letter ; on the
contrary, it is full of tender exhortation and encourage-
ment to lead a new life. She sent it by Raimondo,
addressed " to Messer Giovanni, soldier of Fortune, and
head of the Company which came in the time of the
famine," and so great was its effect that Hawkwood and
his officers vowed on the sacrament that they would take
the Cross, " and they signed it with their hand, and sealed
it with their seal." And the effect was lasting, for
though there was no crusade, Messer Giovanni not only
protested against the atrocious sack of Cesena, when
Cardinal Robert of Geneva treacherously seized that most
unhappy city, but thenceforward only fought in " regular
warfare," whatever that may mean.

A stronger proof of Catherine's power could hardly be
found.

The Pope fully approved of the projected Crusade, and
the hope of freeing France and Italy from the mercenaries
was very welcome. If only they would go ! But
already they had on an earlier occasion been hired to
fight the infidels, and actually set out to do so, but found
the way longer than their scanty knowledge of geography
had led them to expect, and came back, on which, to keep
them safely employed, they were engaged to fight for
Pedro the Cruel, with the ultimate aim of driving the
Moors out of Spain. This too was called a Crusade, on

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 109

the strength of which name they went to Avignon, led
by Duguesclin, to ask the blessing of Urban V., with
absolution for their sins, and a contribution of 200,000
florins. Urban recollected how in the time of his pre-
decessor, Innocent VI., the " Grandes Compagnies " had
wasted the country, laughing at excommunication, and
only induced to depart without burning the newly built
papal palace by the gift of 60,000 florins, absolution, and
an engagement to fight the Visconti, lords of Milan, and
he sent a Cardinal to parley with Duguesclin. " As for
absolution," said the Cardinal, " that you shall surely
have, but as for money I cannot say." " Sir," replied
Duguesclin, "there are many here who say nothing of
absolution, and love money much better." The Pope
had to yield. Duguesclin asked if the florins came from
the papal treasury. " Nay, in sooth," was the answer,
" the common folk of Avignon have all paid their share
that the treasure of Heaven be not lessened." " By the
faith I owe to the Holy Trinity," exclaimed the great
Captain, " not a halfpenny will I take from these poor
folk. The Pope must give what is his own." And again
Urban submitted.

With such recollections Gregory XL, even had he not
been timid by nature, might well desire to be free of
these terrible mercenaries. Policy and religion combined
to make a Crusade appear urgent. Then and long after
the fear that Saracen or Turk might overrun Europe was
a nightmare possibility, and it is significant that in a
painting by Diirer of the Crucifixion the soldiers below
the Cross are represented as Turks. He caused letters
to be sent to the Princes of Christendom calling them to
take up the Cross, and bade Catherine do the same
throughout Italy. Her most trusted messengers
were Raimondo, who not only had the dignity of her
emissary, but was a man of good birth, being descended

no SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

from the family of Delle Vigne, as has been stated,
and also of learning, who would appeal to the upper
class, and, as a voice to the lower, the rough old
Giovanni delle Celle, whose name appears frequently in
connection with hers. Born of a noble Pisan family,
he would seem to have taken the monastic vows too
young, and fell into vice, expiated by a repentance of
some forty years in a hermitage above the convent of
Vallombrosa. The description of him is not attractive.
" Mean in stature, with a bristly face and tangled hair,"
wrote a fellow hermit, yet, as the old man lay dead
" he was the fairest corpse that eye ever beheld." Like
Catherine he was a great letter writer, but his tone is
less lofty and much more conversational than hers. His
letters are chiefly addressed to a Florentine noble of the
Palagio family, and, amid serious meditations and ex-
hortations he tells how he has seen the bone of a huge
serpent, a bone as large as a pig and weighing 500 lb.,
hung up before the Church of the Batia, but which the
Abbot had had buried, and he could tell other things
concerning the serpents of that region, did he not fear
that his correspondent would disbelieve him, and think
he was joking. And he has not told his friend Guido
about it, lest he should be afraid to come to Vallombrosa.
Then there is an allusion to the fiery serpents of the
Wilderness, and the letter ends with some good advice.
Others are earnest exhortations to a holy life, and others
again show the high esteem in which he held Catherine,
and are important, because her detractors sought to show
that he doubted her, and even blamed her. Had this
been the case he certainly would not have carried her
letters, yet it was the Crusade which gave opportunity
for the charge.

His nineteenth letter has a peculiar value as bearing
on this question. It is addressed to the venerable virgin

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN in

Domitilla, of most pure life, wisdom and the knowledge
which is of the saints, but the contents cannot be said to
show that Don Giovanni esteemed either her knowledge
or her wisdom, and it is easy to see how Catherine's de-
tractors could use it against her as well as Domitilla. This
" venerable virgin " desired to accompany the crusading
force to the Holy Land, and the hermit admits that it is
a pious wish, yet in fact it is the door of perdition and
dispersion of all virtues, and the enemy of souls is in it
seeking to drive her and all the women who want to do
the same from the paradise of innocence and purity.
" Perhaps you will reply that Holy Catherine preaches
that we should go over sea. I answer that if she counsels
this as a means of finding Christ, I deny it with all the
saints who speak thereof. Firstly, Christ says that the
kingdom of God is within us. And St Antony says that
the men of this world go hither and thither, to sea, by
land, to learn wisdom through many perils, but we to learn
virtue and gain God need not gad about, for in every part
of the world one can win paradise. . . . Tell me then, I
pray thee, the reason of thy desire. Maybe thou wilt
reply, to see the Promised Land, and visit the Tomb, and
gain pardon of sins. I answer that thou dost call that
country the land of promise, but I, the accursed land, for
there Christ died, and God cursed country and people. . . .
True worshippers, as Christ said, neither in Jerusalem nor
in Mount Canzin " ( sic ) " adore the Father, for God is a
Spirit, and they who worship Him must do so in spirit
and in truth. Wherefore the Lord said in the Temple,
1 let me go hence.' So saith St Jerome, St Antony and
all the monks of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Cappadocia
who never saw Jerusalem, and yet Paradise was opened to
them. . . . Dost think to live better there than here?
Full is the city of men and women and so great is the
crowd that what thou didst flee elsewhere, there thou must

112 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

endure. Perhaps thou sayest, 'I go to seek pardon.'
And wherefore risk becoming the food of fishes and of
losing thine honour and being the slave of Saracens if our
knights were discomfited by them when thou canst find
pardon in thine own land ? ... Is not Rome full of
pardons ? . . . O most simple among all the simple, does
not Christ say that where two or three are gathered, there
is He ? Thou hast Christ already. And if thou dost put
more faith in that St Catherine of thine rather than in the
holy doctors, go again to her and ask her how she came to
such perfection, and thou wilt clearly see that it was through
silence and prayer, for it is said she kept silence eight
years" — (the partial silence of three had already been
multiplied to eight) " remaining in her chamber and pray-
ing. Do thou this, and when thou hast attained to her
perfection certainly I will give thee leave to go overseas,
but if thou dost go imperfect as thou art, thou wilt lose
the little thou hast." And he concludes with the plainest
statement of the risks which women run in travelling with
an army, even a crusading one.

Don Giovanni was an impulsive and emotional man who
did not stop to weigh his words or think how they might
be reported, and when the Bacceliere, William Flete,
heard in his retreat the tale that he had blamed Catherine
and had even written sharply to her, he fired up, and wrote
to him on the subject. The epistle is lost, but to judge
by the reply it filled his fellow-hermit with dismay, and he
sent two very long ones to Flete, assuring him that never
had he ventured to write to Catherine, much less to use
rash or jesting words about one whom he held to be the
angel who sounded the sixth trumpet ! He reverenced
her beyond words, and — to tell him a secret — treasured a
lock of her hair, given him by a virgin who had cut it off
undiscovered while Catherine was rapt in ecstasy, as if it
had belonged to a saint in Paradise. And he relieves his

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 113

feelings by a sly little hint that the Englishman had no
great knowledge of Tuscan, and had probably misunder-
stood what he had heard about him. From his second
letter, in answer to one in a more amiable tone from Flete,
it appears that Catherine had written to him. This letter
too is lost, but it would seem that she had learned of Flete's
action on her behalf, and wanted to put an end to the
matter ; she constantly had to hush her over-vehement
defenders. It is amusing to find Don Giovanni turning
the tables on Flete by attacking a brother of his com-
munity who had calumniated both the hermit of Vallom-
brosa by asserting him to be at heart a Fraticello, and
Catherine a presumptuous person, venerated in Florence
no doubt, but then Florence abounded in fools. Surely
the Prior and Flete must have crushed this recreant —
certainly Don Giovanni replied with an energy which left
nothing to be desired. The shaft launched against him
was a poisoned one, for by some strange misconception his
followers were often confounded with the Fraticelli or Poor
Brethren, one of the many sects which in spite of the
Inquisition abounded in Florence, and against whose errors
Catherine while there publicly protested. Don Giovanni
and she had much discussion how to deal with their
teaching, and it was very grievous to him to have his
" spirituali " supposed to hold their doctrine. To judge
by his view of women going on pilgrimage he was a man
with common sense, and Catherine would have agreed with
him. As has been said, she herself made none, for her
visits to Leccato and Montepulciano or to the Dominican
monastery of San Quirico, to whose abbot, Don Martino,
several of her letters are addressed, hardly come under that
head, and though she sometimes refreshed herself with a
day-dream of a time when she might visit the Holy Land,
she certainly would not have followed in the wake of an
army, and though in some of her correspondence with
H

114 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

women friends she may suggest that were peace definitely
made among the Italian Republics, they could join her in
a fair company and go against the infidels, this must not
be taken too literally. Besides the pious longing to see
Palestine in Christian hands, she hoped that Christianity
would be forwarded by a Crusade ; " souls and the place "
must both be precious in the eyes of the invaders, and far
more important than delivering the Holy Land or staying
the onward march of the unbelievers was the effort to
bring them into the fold of Christ, where one day all
should come. She, almost alone in her time, one not
prolific in great men or great ideas, had inherited the ideal
of a very different Gregory from the one who now bore the
name, and she had yet to learn how times were changed
since that Pope, or Innocent III., sat on the pontifical
throne. Full of hope, rejoicing in the bull issued by
Gregory, announcing the Crusade, she wrote to friends in
Siena, " affairs are going better and better for the Crusade,"
and for a time all promised well.

But always when some great hope seemed on the point
of fulfilment Catherine was called to renounce it, and
though in her case as in that of many other great souls,
her failures were nobler than most men's successes, the cup
was a very bitter one to drink. Venice went to war with
Genoa ; Florence though Guelf when it suited her, was no
meek daughter of the Popes, and now was showing signs
of active discontent. So did Perugia, maddened by the
conduct of her governor, a Papal Legate. Raimondo tells
how when the news reached Pisa that the latter city had
driven out Legate and priests, he went " drowned in grief "
to tell Catherine. At first she was almost equally de-
pressed, seeing clearly that these discords would be fatal
to the Crusade, perhaps to the Papacy, then, bracing her-
self, she said, " Do not weep before the time ; there will
be far more cause by and by ; this is but milk and honey

ST. CATHERINE (ON THE RIGHT) IN ADORATION

UV CiEROLAMO Dl BENVENUTO

CATHERINE AS A POLITICIAN 115

to what will follow." Raimondo asked in wonder what
more could come, unless a general apostasy. She
answered that it was now the laity who rebelled, but
as soon as the Pope tried to reform the clergy there
would be a great schism. He recollected her words with
awe when the drastic measures of Urban VI. brought about
the result which she had foreseen. On being asked what
would happen to the Church she said that after much
tribulation God would purify it by means unknown to
man. " Give thanks," she added, " for the great peace
which He will give when the tempest is past."

All hopes of the Crusade died away ; trouble in Italy
occupied the Pope and the cities ; only a few enthusiasts
like Catherine herself could not believe that never again
would the Christian nations combine in a holy war. But
in fact interests had become too complex for united action
among them ; the time had gone by for such to be possible.
Catherine, like Dante, was making the mistake of looking
back instead of forward. She had not experience enough
of the world or of politics to take wide views, and regarded
all things too much as if they concerned the Church alone.
Statesmanship was not, and could not be one of her gifts.

CHAPTER VI

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS

ATHERINE'S long absence caused great discontent
I . in Siena, and it seems that even Messer Matteo, the
good Rector of the Spedale, was among the malcon-
tents, for there is a letter written in a tone of displeasure
in which she bids him and all who found fault with her
for remaining so long away look at the saints, against
whom, whether they travelled or stayed at home, there
were certainly plenty of murmurs. No one need think
that she was leaving the ninety-nine for the sake of one ;
for every one whom she has left there are ninety-nine
known only to Heaven, and the knowledge of this is what
enables her to bear the fatigue of the journey, her ill-
health, and the harass of these murmurs. " Whether I
go or stay," she concludes, in the same tone which she
took when the magistrates sought to bring her back from
Montepulciano, " I shall do it to please God, not man.
I have been delayed by illness, but still more because
it is the will of God. We shall return as soon as we
can."

Pisa however was as reluctant to let her go as Siena
to let her stay, and the Archbishop applied to the General
of the Dominicans for permission to keep her yet awhile.
One of her late biographers notices this as a proof that
she took no journey without leave from him, but had this
been so she would have surely brought the fact forward

116

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 117

as a valid excuse for that going hither and thither which
was such a cause of offence, and indeed of scandal. She
always writes as if perfectly free to go and come as
she feels best, and no difficulty ever seems to have been
made as to any Mantellata whom she selected going with
her, although it was understood that recluses and sisters
of penance stayed at home, and came rarely into
society.

Before leaving Pisa Catherine took a journey which
was a refreshing interlude in her stay there, and a
memorable experience, for she saw the sea for the first
time. Thenceforward metaphors constantly appear in
her letters showing how deeply she was affected by it.
On the rocky little island of Gorgona, which rises steeply
from the water about eleven miles from Leghorn had
stood from very early times a monastery which had
passed in the Trecento from the Benedictines to the
Carthusians. The Prior had repeatedly invited Catherine
to visit him, an honour as remarkable in its way as any
ever offered her. She hesitated, but Raimondo had been
gained to the Prior's cause, and persuaded by him, she
went. There had been monks settled there as early as
the fourth century, though the island was terribly exposed
to the attacks of sea-rovers, who a few years after
Catherine's visit murdered nearly all the community, or,
worse fate, carried them into slavery. The few who
escaped left the island to a handful of fishermen and the
wild goats.

Riding through the pine forests which then covered
the country between Pisa and Leghorn, she would come
to Porto Pisano on the sea-coast with its watch-towers
which could not defend it from that assault of the Genoese
twelve years before Catherine saw it which had almost
destroyed it. There she embarked for Gorgona, with
Raimondo and Neri di Landoccio, and some others of her

u8 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

company, twenty in all. They reached the island at
sunset, and were met by the Prior. As a woman, how-
ever much of a saint, Catherine could not be harboured
in the monastery, and was lodged in a house about a mile
distant, but the next day the Prior assembled his monks
in the open air, and begged her to address them. It is
strange that none of those who have painted events in
her life, not all historical, should have overlooked so
picturesque a subject as that assembly when the young
Mantellata " with the light of peace celestial in her eyes
of olive grey," spoke to the white-robed monks of the
lonely little island with the blue sky overhead, and the
sea lapping softly on the rocks, while her companions
stood behind her, watching the effect of her words on the
Carthusians, some at least of whom, it is lawful to sup-
pose, bred up in the contempt of women inculcated by
monastic teaching, must have inwardly protested against
the action of their Prior in showing one of that sex such
unheard-of honour. It was not willingly that Catherine
addressed this audience ; she felt and said that " it was
fitter for her to listen to God's servants than to speak
before them," but the Prior entreated her to do so, and
she looked at the monks awaiting her words, and her
heart was full, and she began to speak of the " illusions
and temptations " which beset the life of the cloister with
such knowledge and sympathy as filled even her own
company, who knew well what her power of speaking
was, with wondering admiration and pride in her. She
had had her own experiences of the dangers as well as
the blessings of a solitary's life ; in several of her letters
there are allusions to them, and no doubt many of the
faces before her told a tale which she was quick to read.
When she paused the Prior said to Raimondo, " Dear
brother, I am the confessor of all these, and know the
hearts of each, and I assure you that if this saintly woman

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 119

had heard all their confessions, she could not have spoken
more fitly."

The Mediterranean is a treacherous sea, and the return
journey was dangerous. All the little company of land-
folk were alarmed, especially Raimondo, whose strong
point was never courage, but Catherine smiled at their
fears and " continued in prayer." They reached the land
at the hour of matins, " singing Te Deum as they touched
shore."

After this break in the anxieties and disappointments
crowding upon her, among which must be reckoned the
complaints and jealousies of some of her friends and
Mantellate left in Siena, Catherine returned home in the
autumn of 1375, and took up her usual life of prayer and
good works, among which must be counted the great
pacification of the three families of Tolomei, Rinaldini
and Maconi already mentioned. From this time her life
was brightened by the love and devotion of Stefano, and
her affection for him was so marked as to rouse some
jealousy among her other followers. After her death he
made a collection of her letters which were kept in the
Certosa of Pavia where he became prior. It was her dying
charge that he should become a Carthusian. Up to that
time no such thought had crossed the mind of the brilliant
young nobleman, whose parents intended him to follow
quite another career, but what was in fact a command,
given at such a time, could not be gainsaid, and he found
comfort in following out her wish. " Had all the world
opposed him, he would not have done otherwise."
Catherine's influence was even stronger over him in death
than in life.

Stefano seems to have had a genius for friendship, and
to have chosen friends the opposite of himself, such as
Caffarini, and the serious young Neri di Landoccio, an-
other devoted disciple of Catherine's. To him he wrote

120 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

frequently when he was in Siena while Neri was in Rome,
and to him he wrote shortly after he commenced his novi-
tiate at Pontignano, beginning his letter, " To my sweetest
and most beloved brother in Christ and in the holy
memory." There was no need to say whose. Neri's
heart would supply the beloved name. Another letter to
his friend tells how, much against his will, he had been
elected Prior, though he had only taken the habit in the
preceding year. One more is preserved. Neri had
become a hermit and Stefano was General of his Order.
He relates that he has been inspecting various monasteries,
and had dined at Genoa with Caffarini and Raimondo,
and had seen Orietta Scotti, " who with great lovingness
recognised him as her son," — he had been sick almost to
death in her house when there with Catherine, fourteen
years before — " and many other things he could tell
which no doubt Neri would like to hear." It is good to
know that Maconi made it a special work to reconcile
enemies, as did Flete. No greater honour could have
been done to Catherine's memory than to continue her
labours. The thought of her was always with him ; he
always kept at hand a gold reliquary given to her at
Avignon, and then to him, and we read with a smile
of tender amusement that his Carthusians always had
beans at dinner on Easter Day, in memory of a meal
which he and Catherine had once eaten on that festival,
when she had nothing else in the house. In old age
he saw much of San Bernadino, born the year of
Catherine's death, who would come to visit him in his
beautiful Certosa di Pavia, and hear him talk of
Catherine. Her name was the last word uttered by
his dying lips.

The cell which Neri di Landoccio occupied was just
without the Porta Nuova of Siena, whence he diffused
considerable influence, dying in the hospital of La Scala,

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 121

perhaps choosing to do so because Catherine had so often
gone among the sick there. He was a scholar and wrote
verses, many of them lauds in her honour, and he read
the Divina Commedia, and did not always return books
which he had borrowed, for his friend Giunta di Grazia
asks him to send back " quello pezzo di Dante " which he
had lent him. All his books and writings he bequeathed
to the Olivetans, together with a portrait of Catherine
which he had had painted. What became of it is not
known.

Among those who were among the closest of Catherine's
circle of friends and followers must be counted the three
men who at different times held the office of her con-
fessor. The first was Tomaso della Fonte, a relation of
her family, a simple, unlearned, good man, much per-
plexed by such a penitent, and inclined to check and
suppress her unusual ways, but gradually he became con-
vinced that she was led by heavenly impulses, and when
after her death he became prior of San Domenico he took
every opportunity of showing his reverence for her.
There is a mysterious passage in one of her letters to
Raimondo which hints at backsliding and repentance in
one time of his life. " I have good news to tell you of
my Father Tomaso, for by the grace of God he has van-
quished Satan through his virtues. He has become quite
another man to what he was. Pray write to him, and
open yourself to him. Rejoice that my wandering sons
have come back out of darkness to the hearth." Other
letters show that if at this time something had come
between the two good men, later there was only friend-
ship, but Delia Fonte seems to have felt that Raimondo
could understand Catherine better, and had more time to
give her than himself. Catherine shared this view, and
fully believed that the Virgin Mary had promised her a
Father of her soul who should be far more valuable than

122 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

him whom she had hitherto had — which, however true, was
uncomplimentary to poor Delia Fonte. Raimondo was
then Lector of Holy Scripture in Siena, an office which he
must have given up when he became the companion of
her journeys. We trace the development of the relation
between them in her change of tone ; she first writes to
him as " Reverend Father in Christ," but later as
" Dearest Father and my son," and he, from an attitude
of suspicion, for he had known a great many silly and
hysterical women, and had the poor opinion of the sex which
the confessional is apt to produce, became so wonder-
struck by her gifts and sanctity that everything she did
seemed a marvel to him, and he accepted rebuke as if
he had been the penitent and she his superior. And
Catherine was not sparing of rebuke on occasion. Good
man as he was, he sometimes found it difficult to live up
to her ideal. " I am certain," he writes, with a kind of
rueful admiration, " that if she could have had a chance
of speaking of divine things with people who understood
her, she would have gone on for a hundred days and
nights without food or drink, and never would have been
weary, but rather refreshed. I may say this, though to
my own confusion, that often when she spoke to me of
God and His deep mysteries for a long while together, I,
who was far from that fervour which she possessed, would
grow tired, and overcome with the heaviness of the flesh,
and sometimes fell asleep. Then she, absorbed in God,
would go on talking without finding out that I was asleep,
and when at last she discovered it, she would awake me
by exclaiming loudly : ' Alas ! Father, why for a little
sleep do you lose the profit of your soul ? Am I speak-
ing the word of God to you or to a wall ? ' He
honestly says that, writing when his memory was some-
what failing, he could not always be sure that he recol-
lected Catherine's very words, though as he wrote they

ST. CATHERINE CHOOSES THE CROWN OF THORNS

BY A. FRANCHI

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 123

often came back vividly to him, but there are sayings
such as the above which one is very sure are hers and no
one else's.

Sometimes, even in the later days of their intercourse,
he was puzzled and uneasy at her course of action, and
would question it and disapprove, but as far as appears,
he always ended by believing that she knew best. One
such occasion arose either when she was in Pisa or had
just returned to Siena — in 1375. He heard so much
criticism of the way in which she received without protest
the honour and respect shown her that he called her to
account in the presence of Fra Bartolomeo. " See'st thou
not what honours are shewn thee ? " — kneeling to her and
kissing her hands being among them — " and because thou
lettest it be, many think thou hast pleasure therein, and
are angered thereby, and speak against thee." " God
knows I heed little or nothing what position of body
those about me take," she answered, " I look only on
souls. If they so greet me, I think of the good intent
wherewith they came, and thank Divine Goodness which
moved them thereunto, and pray in spirit that He who
impelled them to come may fulfil the desire with which
He inspired them." " But, my mother," — so her disciples
called her, even those older than herself, Raimondo him-
self amongst them — " the high honours which so many
show thee — may they not move thee to vainglory?"
" I marvel that a creature, knowing that it is a creature,
can feel vainglory," said Catherine.

Neither Raimondo nor Fra Bartolomeo fully under-
stood her meaning at this time. Thinking it over, they
saw how deep a humility really inspired her, but perhaps
the suggestion troubled her sensitive conscience, for it is
a curious coincidence that suddenly, on her deathbed, as
if repelling an accusation, she exclaimed, " Vainglory ?
Never, but the true glory of Christ crucified."

124 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

When Raimondo was absent, Catherine took for
her confessor Bartolomeo di Domenico, another good
man, devoted to her, but one who perhaps sometimes
felt her strenuous life, " too high for mortal man
beneath the sky " — at all events for the ordinary one.
He was of a morbid nature, full of scruples which his
brethren laughed at, and Catherine gently and wisely
silenced.

The list of the monks and friars who were Catherine's
friends would be a long one, but among the secular
priests few if any were among her intimate followers.
Perhaps this arose from the strong ill-feeling between
the seculars and the friars, or from her attack on the
low moral condition of the parish priests. In Siena both
seculars and religious seem to have needed reform ; what
effect Catherine had on the former is not known, but it
appears that she roused the Dominicans into observing
their rule in its pristine strictness. Between the two
mendicant Orders was a rivalry not always friendly, but
Catherine had many disciples among the Franciscans, and
is known to have written letters to them now lost. One
however remains, to Fra Lazzarino of Pisa, who came
one Lent to preach at Siena. A sentence in it casts a
touching light on her own inner history. " Nothing," she
writes, " should meet with such a reward hereafter as toil
of heart " (fadiga di cuore), " and mental suffering." She
knew what she was saying, from long experience, yet all
the time " there was a royal song of triumph in her heart
because her Lord was there," as a mystic of our own time
has said of himself.

Among laymen Catherine had friends as devoted to
her as were any among her ecclesiastical followers. Of
Neri di Landoccio and Maconi mention has been already
made, and there were a father and son of the great
Piccolomini family, a Pope of which was to canonise

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 125

her, It went ill for anyone who ventured to criticise
Catherine in the hearing of Gabriello Piccolomini. He
was a man of holy and honourable life, warlike as were
most of his race, and Catherine's letter to him, the only
one addressed to a Piccolomini which has been preserved,
abounds in martial metaphors, as if she bore this in mind.
He is to be armed for the battle between good and evil
and fight to the death, and always carry the two-edged
sword of hatred of ill and love of virtue, and he is to
smite the world with it, and the devil by constant
patience ; where there is love the Evil One flies as a
fly from a boiling pot — a Tuscan locution of course
familiar to her correspondent, though not used in the
customary sense. These and such like arms he will
need when the gonfalon of the most holy Cross is up-
lifted, and he must not let them get rusty. It is a moral
crusade of which she is here speaking, but her thoughts
turn to the one which she still hoped to see organised
on earth, and she ends by saying that they will
all be wanted also, " when he marches against the
infidel."

That the young Francesco Malavolti was brought to
Catherine by the influence of Neri di Landoccio, he tells
himself. He was leading an irreligious and licentious life,
and Neri, to whom she was " guide, philosopher and
friend," was urgent that he should turn to better things,
and begin by visiting her. Neri himself had, at one time,
been indifferent to religion, though he had never followed
his friend into the paths too familiar to Malavolti, and in
fact it was his goodness, as well as his charm of manner
and gift of poetry which strongly attracted Malavolti,
though at first he paid little attention to his words,
only laughing at his " becatherine " friend. " At last,"
Malavolti writes, " not wishing to vex him because of the
great friendship between us, I told him that I would do

126 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

as he wished, though in my heart I went out of no
devotion, but rather in derision, resolved that if she
talked to me of religion, especially of confession, I would
give her such an answer that she would not venture to do
it again. But when I came into her gracious presence, I
no sooner saw her face than such fear and trembling fell
upon me that I well nigh swooned, and though, as I
say, I thought not at all of confession, yet with her first
words God so wonderfully changed my heart that I went
at once to confess, and became the very opposite of what
I had been."

He was, however, but an unstable convert. During
Catherine's long absence at Avignon, he slipped back into
something too like his old life, especially into the vice so
common in Siena, of reckless gambling, and on her return
must have gone to see her with a quaking heart. Her
tolerance of his backslidings and certainty that he would
overcome his sins somewhat surprised and almost scandal-
ised some of her circle, but she hoped on, though again
and again disappointed. " You keep coming to me, and
then fly back like a wild bird to your manifold failings,"
she told him, " but fly where you will, by God's grace I
will one day put such a fetter round your neck that you
can fly away no more."

He cost her many anxious thoughts and prayers, how-
ever. " I may well call you dear," she wrote, " so many
tears have you cost me." He was with her during
her visit to Rocca d'Orcia, and described her cure of
the cases of lunacy there, and was deeply impressed
by what he saw. Trouble came on him some years
later ; his wife and children all died ; Catherine, too, had
gone to her rest. A document of great interest l relates
that one of his uncles, seeing his love for horses and
armour, proposed to him that now he was a widower,

" Hist, of St Catherine." A. Drave.

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 127

unless he would marry again, he should become a knight
of St John, and " so indulge his taste without risking his
salvation." He was at once accepted by a Chapter of the
Order, but on the night before the one on which he was
to be received, St Catherine stood beside him in a dream,
and bade him seek Neri di Landoccio, and go straight to
the Monastery of the Olivetani. " Dost thou not remember,"
she said in his dream, "how I once said to thee that
when thou shouldest think me far away I should be
nearer than ever, and subject thy neck to such a yoke that
thou should'st never be able to shake it off? " Neri found
himself making many objections, but she answered that
unless he obeyed he would fall into great dangers, and
vanished. A great longing to obey the beloved mother
who had come back to guide him filled his heart ; he rose
at dawn, and sought Neri. He, too, had had the joy of
seeing Catherine in his dreams, and she had said to him,
" Expect thy friend, Francesco Malavolti, and go with him
to the house of Mount Olivet." Neri was then a hermit ;
he left his cell and the two went together over the
tossed and tumbled volcanic hills and through the forests
for some fourteen miles, and so came to the monastery, and
though usually a long and severe trial was made of any
who desired to enter the Order, on hearing what had
occurred, the Prior agreed at once to receive Malavolti,
who returned to Siena to dispose of his arms and horses,
and explain why he had renounced all thought of being
a knight of St John, after which he went back to the
monastery, and the old Malavolti palazzo knew him no
more.

Not all Catherine's followers justified her belief in
them ; among so many there were naturally some who
fell away, and of whom she was forced at last to despair.
Of one such she writes with sorrowful decision that even
were he to return she could have nothing more to do

128 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

with him. Of such as these no record was kept, but they
may have been many, for the Tuscan character is easily
moved by religion, and as easily cooled, the Sienese
especially so. Catherine's frequent absences must have
been a test of the reality of her conversions, and there
can be no doubt that a great number proved to be
genuine, and independent of her personal influence, if
others proved unstable. One more of those who became
close friends of Catherine's may be taken from the many
that might be noticed, a member of the Savini family,
known as Nanni di Ser Vanni, or John, the son of Master
John, a man fierce and violent, stirring up continual strife
in a city of which Aonio Paleario wrote after visiting it,
" Siena is situated on charming hills, and the surrounding
country is fruitful, producing everything plentifully, but
discord sets its citizens in arms against one another, and
all their strength is exhausted in party strife." If this
were true in 1531 it was much more so in the Trecento,
but Nanni di Ser Vanni sowed trouble, not only as head
of a faction, but by being " marvelous subtle." If there
were any one whom he feared in Siena it was Catherine
Benincasa, and he kept studiously out of her reach, but
at length the Baccehere, William Flete, wearied him into
consenting to go and see her, though declaring that what-
ever she said concerning peace, he was fixed and would
not be moved, and he went, sullenly enough, to the
Fullonica, but at an hour when she was from home, as
he possibly knew. Raimondo, however, was there, who
invited him into her oratory, and did his best to entertain
him, earnestly hoping that Catherine would return.
Nanni, rejoiced to escape an interview with her, had no
mind to stay, and presently said, " Father, I promised
Brother William to come to speak to the holy maid, but
as she is away, and I have work to do at once, I pray
you make my excuses to her, and tell her I am sorry she

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 129

was not at home," and therewith rose to depart To
gain time Raimondo began to speak about the peace
which had been planned only to come to nothing between
Nanni and his enemies. Laying aside his usual caution,
he said that to Raimondo, priest and monk, and to
Catherine, of whom he heard report of great virtue and
holiness, he would tell no lies, but admit that, while
preparing outwardly to make peace, he was really putting
every obstacle he could devise in the way. " To tell you
my meaning in few words," he said, with a burst of the
fierceness so strangely mingled with his craft, " my peace
shall be made and - sealed in the blood of my enemies.
This is my resolve, and thence I will not be moved.
Wherefore, prithee, set thy heart at rest, and trouble me
no more."

Raimondo, though much disturbed, still hoped in
Catherine, and went on talking till he heard her come
in. Nanni very unwillingly sat down again, and listened
in stubborn silence to all she said. Feeling that her
words were useless, she sat silent, and Raimondo knew
that she was praying. He began again to talk with
Nanni in order to keep him yet a while longer, and with
a great joy heard him presently say, " It shall not be said
of me that I am so hard and uncharitable that I will
relent in nothing. I will do as you wish in some one
thing, and then take my leave. I have four quarrels in
the city, of which I will put one into your hands. Do in
it as seems good to you ; make you my peace, and I will
abide your orders."

He rose to go, but with this first victory over himself
came a sense of relief and peace of mind, of comfort and
penitence, which quite overcame him, and bursting into
tears he knelt by Catherine, and implored her to advise
and help him, and she, full of thankfulness, bade him
repent and make what atonement he could for the past,
i

130 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

which he did, but shortly after this, Raimondo came in
great trouble to tell her that Nanni, no longer dreaded
and formidable, had been thrown into prison on account
of the offences brought up against him. " So long as
Nanni served the devil," said the perplexed Raimondo, " so
long did all things go prosperously with him, but since he
began to serve God we see the world wholly set against
him," and he went on to express his fear lest this should
discourage Nanni, and cause him to despair. Catherine
took his bad news very calmly, saying that this calamity
showed Nanni's sins were pardoned, the everlasting pains
due to him being exchanged for temporal afflictions.
" When he was of the world, the world made much of
him, as one who was its own, but now that he had begun
to spurn at the world, no wonder if it kicked at him
again. As for falling into despair, He who delivered
him out of the deep dungeon of hell would not let him
perish."

And in a few days Raimondo could tell her that Ser
Nanni had been released, though with a heavy fine,
" whereof the noble maid was nothing sorry, but rather
glad, thinking that his wealth might have been a snare to
him." " Our Lord has mercifully taken away that poison
wherewith he had before poisoned himself, and might
again," she said.

Three miles from Siena stood a castle which belonged
to Ser Nanni, and, in token of gratitude for what
Catherine had done for his spiritual welfare, he made it
over to her to be used as a convent. He could not
however do this without the consent of the magistrates, as
no fortress might either be built or destroyed near the
city for obvious reasons, but this castle of Belcaro was
already old and in disrepair, and could not, as they
thought, in any way either advantage or endanger the
state, so at the desire of Nanni and the petition of

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 131

" Catherine, daughter of Monna Lapa of the Contrada of
Fontebranda," when the matter was put to the vote there
were only sixty-five black beans against three hundred
and thirty-three white ones,1 and Belcaro passed into the
hands of Catherine, who found great delight in turning it
into a convent which was known as Santa Maria degli
Angeli.

That the rulers of Siena were wise in their reluctance
to let strong places pass out of their jurisdiction was
shown by the fact that this very Belcaro became a source
of danger when seized and garrisoned in the fatal siege
of Siena by Cosmo de Medici in 1554. The convent
was soon afterwards changed into a dwelling-house by a
rich banker of Siena, one of the Turamini family, but
the ilexes which covered the hills around are so old that
Catherine may have walked under them.

Raimondo relates how all " her spiritual sons and
daughters " assembled when the work of turning what he
calls " a most beautiful palazzo " into a convent was
begun, and that the Papal Commissary present was that
Abbot of Sant Antimo, whom she had so bravely
defended to the magistrates of Siena when she was at
Montepulciano. So great a change had Catherine worked
in Ser Nanni, that he who had loved money too much,
now, when comparatively poor, made over his castle to
Catherine, and, says Raimondo, " I, who for many years
was his confessor, know that for the most part he amended
his ways, at all events during that time which I had to
do with him."

That Catherine had most loving and true friends
among women as well as men is evident, but very little
is told of them. Some of them acted as her secretaries,
and messages on their own account often mingle quaintly
with her letters, when written to any of her " college."

1 Archives of Siena.

132 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Now it is " Cecca the laughing," or " the waster of time,"
or"Giovanna pazza" — madcap — unless indeed she makes
a feminine of her family name of Pazzi, or " Alessia the
plump, or the negligent, who would gladly put herself
into this letter, and go in it to her correspondent, or " a
hundred thousand remembrances " are sent, all which is
in curious contrast to the solemn form of words, almost
always the same, with which the letters are begun.
These ladies must have had an unusual amount of
education to act as Catherine's secretaries, but the more
important letters are written by her young men friends,
one of whom was Barduccio Canigiani, whose family held
an important position in Florence, and whose friendship
with Catherine cost them dear. A female friend,
whose name is not given, probably a nun, undertook to
teach her some Latin, but she had not the habit of
learning, and in spite of the similarity to her own
language, she toiled on without making apparent
progress.

" Lord," she prayed in her discouragement, " if it please
Thee that I may learn so that I can sing the psalms and
the hymns in the canonical hours, teach Thou me what
by myself I cannot learn ; if not, Thy will be done ; I
will remain in my simplicity, and spend the time granted
me in other meditations." Full of hope and energy
she resumed her studies, and found that the power to
understand had awakened in her.

Such an experience is not uncommon after a long
mental effort, and would now be described as unconscious
cerebration, but Raimondo naturally regards it as
miraculous. He considers it also a deep mystery how,
though she learned to read very easily, she could never
learn to spell, though this, too, is an experience not un-
known even in our own day. Writing was an art which,
as far as can be gathered, she only learned almost ten years

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS 133

later, when at Avignon. Her first letter, in which she
evidently took an innocent pride, was to Stefano Maconi.
It cost her far less trouble to learn to write than it had
done to learn to read, but either it never became really
easy to her, or else that imperfect spelling which so
perplexed Raimondo, made her always dictate unless
when moved by some feeling too strongly personal to be
expressed through another person, as when she wrote to
Raimondo in Rome, from Rocca d'Orcia,1 a letter
which Tommaseo calls at once tractate and ode and
drama, lofty as the Paradise of Dante, but with more
ardour, a criticism which lovers of Dante will scarcely
accept.

Among her circle were learned men like Caffarini, who
directed her Biblical studies, and Raimondo, who read the
New Testament and parts of Aquinas to her. The
learned editor of her letters, Tommaseo, explains the
passage as meaning that she saw Raimondo with St John
and Aquinas in a vision, but it is more natural to suppose
that before Raimondo went on his important visit to
Rome, he visited her at Rocca d'Orcia, and while there
read passages of the angelic doctor to her. She could
hardly have studied them for herself, for he admits that
" she did not know letters." What is now understood by
a Bible would then have been a mass of manuscript,
costly and cumbrous, and very unlikely to have been in
her possession, but there were collections of texts and
chapters largely used in the Middle Ages ; Ochino had
one at a later time which he calls the Biblia Aurea, and
which was finally put on the Index on account of its
many mistranslations. She would also know a certain
amount of Scripture from the offices of the Church. Her
letters show that she often had Bible words in mind as
she wrote. The assertion that she could explain all

1 Letter 262.

134 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

holy writ must, however, be regarded as merely the fond
exaggeration of some who admired and loved her. If it
were seriously made, the contemptuous anger of those
theologians and professors, who came to question her, is
easy to understand.

CHAPTER VII

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON

«

ATHERINE was not allowed to remain long in
1 , Siena ; public affairs claimed her afresh ; all Upper
Italy was rising in revolt against the Holy See,stimu-
lated by the lords of Milan, Bernabo, one of the family
whom Villani calls " those wild beasts, the Visconti."
Wild beast was a name that certainly suits Bernabo,
who observed no law, feared neither Heaven nor hell, and
mocked at excommunication. In a time when to judge
or punish a cleric was to call down heavy spiritual
penalties, he quartered his dogs on the monasteries in
his domains, and for every dog that died, a monk was
hung.

Like not a few Italian despots, his head was turned by
power, and jaded by utter license he sought sensation in
devising tortures, delighting in cruelty for cruelty's sake,
and taking away life as indifferently as if he were killing
an insect. He was of the race of Ezzelino and Alberic
da Romano and Galeazzo Sforza. Peace in Italy was the
last thing which he desired, and the one hope for it was to
crush him. There had been a moment when this was
possible, and Catherine never made a greater mistake than
when she induced the Pope to make terms with him. Her
love of peace and desire for a crusade was too strong for
her judgment, as again when she wrote bidding the King
of France end the Hundred Years' war even at the price
of abandoning his dominions to the English. Bernabo

136 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

was too crafty not to seek to win her, but his real aims
were soon revealed. His insinuations that the Pope was
intending to make all Tuscany subject to his rule, or even
to allow France to seize it, fell into Florence like a spark
in dry fuel, and the conduct of the papal Legates confirmed
his suggestions. Catherine herself calls them " eaters and
destroyers of souls, not converters but devourers," while a
chronicler, quoted by Gregorovius, bitterly exclaims, " For
more than a thousand years these districts have been in
the hands of priests, and all through the fault of these they
have been dragged into most cruel wars, without even now
the priests owning them in peace, without even hope that
they ever will do so. Oh, verily it were better before God
and the world that these shepherds should strip themselves
utterly of temporal dominions, since, from the time of
Silvester downward, the consequence of temporal posses-
sions has been countless struggles and destruction of
people and cities. . . . Certain it is that one cannot serve
God and mammon, nor have one foot in heaven and one
on earth."

Most of the Italian Legates did not attempt to solve
the difficult problem ; they frankly served mammon. They
were the more hated in Italy because almost all were
foreigners, unable to speak the language of those whom
they came to rule, and quite indifferent to their interests.
Italy seemed of no account with the Popes ; French in-
fluence was all-powerful. In Gregory's first creation of
Cardinals there was only one Italian to seven Frenchmen,
and three of these were kinsmen of his own.

It was the conduct of a Legate which finally drove
Florence to league with the other cities of Northern and
Central Italy against the Pope. Just at the time when
there was a well-founded suspicion that Guillaume de
Noellet, Legate of Bologna, was plotting to get posses-
sion of Florence, fresh indignation was roused by his

ST. CATHKRINE

FROM A PICTURE BV FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 137

refusing, in flagrant defiance of Gregory's orders, to allow
so much as a sack of corn to pass from his territory into
Tuscany during the scarcity of 1376. Moreover, he dis-
missed Hawkwood, who had been in the papal service,
with a significant message to the Florentines, that if the
free lances should ravage their territory, it was no affair
of his. Macchiavelli's account of the matter runs thus :
" Gregory XL being Pope, and living at Avignon, governed
Italy like his predecessors by legates, who, being full of
avarice and pride, had afflicted many cities. One of them,
who was then at Bologna, thought to gain possession of
Florence on account of the famine which prevailed there,
and not only would give the Florentines no food, but to
deprive them of the hope of coming crops, planned to
assault them as soon as spring came with a great army,
hoping, as they were unarmed and foodless, to conquer
them easily. And it may be he would have succeeded,
had the forces with which he attacked them not been
faithless and venal. . . . Wars begin when one likes, but
not when one likes do they end. This one, begun through
the ambition of the Legate, was followed by the wrath of
the Florentines, and they made a league with all the cities
hostile to the Church, and set eight citizens to govern the
city, and this they did with such virtue and general satis-
faction that they were called saints " — surely Machiavelli
was indulging in a sardonic smile as he wrote this —
" though they heeded little this (papal) censure, and
despoiled the Churches of their possessions, and forced
the clergy to celebrate the divine offices " during the
interdict.

The suspicions as to De Noellet's designs were
strengthened by the discovery that the Legate of
Perugia was plotting with Cione dei Salimbeni against
the liberties of Siena, which suggested a design to seize
the Tuscan cities one after another. Florence thereupon

138 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

took Hawkwood into her service, made a treaty with
Bernabo Visconti, and elected the eight magistrates of
whom Macchiavelli speaks, who were known as the Eight
of War, all of Ghibelline politics, and that Varano was
made generalissimo of their forces who later played the
Florentines false, and took service with the Pope. The
whole city was in an uproar ; crowds paraded the streets,
shouting " Death to the priests," and carrying a red banner
with the word " Libertas " inscribed on it in silver letters,
while the Pope was solemnly declared to be the enemy of
the Republic.

Until thoroughly scared and angered, Gregory honestly
tried to calm the excitement, ordering corn and flour to
be sent to Tuscany, and assuring the Tuscan cities that
he had no designs on them, nay, that he had refused to
accept Lucca when offered to him by the Emperor.
Lucca believed him and remained faithful. Florence
would not listen. She called on all the cities aroun<_. to
join an anti-papal league, and shake off the yoke of the
legates ; more than eighty towns and fortresses responded,
and had Rome joined, the Papal states might have
been lost in the fourteenth instead of the nineteenth
century.

But Rome held back. With her desolate Campagna,
the absence of any strong middle class, her savage barons
and her unruly population, she neither could nor would
forward the purposes of the League. Her importance
depended on the return of the Popes ; the good or ill
fortunes of the Tuscan cities were nothing to her. For a
while her indifference seemed of little consequence ; the
League became more and more formidable, and the
news of one town after another rising against Gregory
filled Catherine with pain and dismay. Her letters to
Avignon show how great was her alarm and anxiety.
Whether we have the first which she sent there is

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 139

uncertain, but in all those of this date which exist she
writes — with one exception — in a tone of equal respect
and frankness, declaring unhesitatingly that the Legates
were responsible for all the ill, " men whom you know to
be incarnate demons," and beseeching the Pope to win
back his rebellious children by kindness. She can see no
other way of recovering his authority, but with kindness
he can do what he will with them, especially the Sienese,
" than whom no people were more susceptible to loving
treatment." She was full of anxiety for Siena, which was
in a very difficult position, whether siding for or against
Florence. If she chose the former alternative, the Pope
might, and did, lay her under an interdict ; if the latter,
the forces of the League might crush her, besides which
she owed gratitude to Florence at this juncture for the
help given when the Legate of Perugia and Cione dei
Salimbeni menaced her. She took a middle course ;
Catherine had the mortification of obtaining no more
from her native town, not siding openly with Florence,
but keeping up friendly communications with her, and
lending help in a quiet way. But this seemed as heinous
to the Pope as open rebellion, and not all Catherine's
efforts could avert his anger from her loved Siena. It
had not fallen on the city when she wrote those early
letters whose tone is almost caressing ; Gregory is to her
as a " Babbo " (Daddy), but he also is to her " Christ on
earth," against whom rebellion is a fearful sin. " Uplift
the gonfalon of the holy Cross," she writes, still with the
hope that a Crusade would gather and fuse all jarring
elements, " if you would see the wolves turn into lambs.
Peace, peace, peace, that war may not delay the
Crusade."

The one letter x which is the exception to her usual
tone at this time is written in a way which shows she was

1 Letter 255.

140 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

strongly moved. Internal evidence shows that it must
have been sent soon after Gregory was elected, and it is
so remarkable that it must be quoted at some length.

" In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and sweet
Mary.

" Most holy and most sweet Father, your unworthy
and wretched daughter Catherine, in Christ gentle Jesus,
recommends herself to you in His precious blood, with
the desire to see you manly, without any fear or carnal
affection for yourself or any creature allied to you, for I
consider and behold that in the sweet sight of God
nothing so hinders your own holy and good desire, the
honour of God, and the exaltation and reformation of
Holy Church as this. Therefore my soul longs with
boundless love that in His infinite mercy He may take
from you every passion and lukewarmness of heart, and
make you a new man, one on fire for reform and most
ardent desire, for otherwise you cannot fulfil the will of
God and the longing of His servants. Alas, alas, my
most sweet Father, forgive my presumption in what I
have said and say. I am constrained to do so by the
sweet Primal Truth. His will, Father, is this, and this
He asks of you, that you do justice on the abundance of
many iniquities committed by those who nourish them-
selves feeding in the Garden of Holy Church, for He says
that the animal should not nourish itself on human flesh.
Since He has given you authority, and you have taken it,
you ought to use your virtue and strength ; not using
them, better were it to give up what was taken. More
honour for God and better for your soul would it be.
The other thing that he wills is this, and this He
demands of you. He wills that you pacify all Tuscany,
with which you are at war."

This is plain speaking indeed, and she goes on to say
that as far as possible the Pope must avoid war altogether,

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 141

except in the Crusade ; all this may seem impossible to
him — she has already discovered his faint-heartedness
where prompt and vigorous action is required — but it is
possible to God in His goodness.

In the same tone of severe admonition she bids him
if he values his life not to be negligent ; if he choose to
execute justice, he can ; he holds the keys of heaven, he
can open and shut, and if he does not do it, were she in
his place she would fear lest the divine judgment should
fall on her. Let him do God's will, lest the hard rebuke
come, " Accursed be thou who hadst time and strength
entrusted to thee, and used them not." This letter ends
with a piteous cry, " I say no more. Pardon, pardon
me ; it is the great love which I feel for your salvation,
and the great grief when I see it in danger, which makes
me speak. Willingly would I have spoken it to you, to
fully discharge my conscience. When it pleases your
Holiness that I should go to you, I shall willingly do so.
Act so that I may not have to appeal to Christ crucified
against you, for I can appeal to none other since there is
no greater than yourself on .earth. Humbly I ask your
blessing."

The lofty tone which she takes is almost startling from
the dyer's daughter to the Pope who was to her the
representation of Christ on earth, and proves her con-
viction that she was given a mission direct from heaven.
There is a slight incoherence here and there, as if her
feelings hurried her along. A minor point to observe
is the over-use of the word " dolce," whether we take it
as " gentle " or " sweet." She had certain favourite words
and metaphors which occur repeatedly in her letters, and
sometimes jar on the modern reader, though they suited
the taste of the Trecento.

This was not the only time that Catherine expressed
her opinion of the worthlessness of temporal possessions

142 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

to the Papacy compared with that of souls. " Let us
suppose," she wrote to Gregory, " that you are bound to
recover lordship over the cities which the Church has
lost, yet are you far more bound to win back so many
lambs which are the treasure of the Church, the loss of
which would indeed make her very poor. Better let go
the gold of worldly things than of spiritual."

Besides urging peace on Gregory, Catherine put with
equal fervour the need and duty of returning to Rome.
Hers was by no means the only voice which from
Dante's downward had bidden the Popes return to the
Eternal City. Petrarch had appealed to them with all
the force of his rhetoric ; so had Rienzi, and the royal
Swede, Brigitta, from her convent in Rome, related
visions which bade them linger in Avignon at their peril.
At the time this visionary princess was almost as famous
as Catherine Benincasa, though with far less influence.
Both she and her husband were Tertiaries of St Francis
of Assisi, and when widowed she came to Rome, both
because the plain speaking in her so-called " Revelations "
brought her into trouble among the Swedish clergy, and
because she believed that she had been ordered by a
voice from heaven to make it her home until a Pope and
an Emperor met there, which came to pass in the time
of Urban V. She wrote an account of her visions in
Swedish, and caused them to be translated into Latin.
Like Catherine, she ardently desired to reform the Church,
and is said to have raised the extremely low standard of
morals among the Roman clergy. Unlike Catherine on
the other hand, she entered a convent in Rome, at the
door of which she used to sit, begging for the poor.
There is a link between St Brigitta and England, for she
founded the order of the Brigantines, a branch of the
Augustinians, and it was a community of these nuns who
occupied the famous Sion House. Catherine had heard

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 143

of her, for she alludes to her in a letter, and moreover
was well acquainted with her Spanish Confessor,
Vadaterra, since it was he who carried a plenary in-
dulgence to her from Gregory XI., with a request that
she would pray for him, and a command to say every
Friday thirty-three Paternosters, and ninety-five Ave
Marias, thus furnishing a proof that as yet he did not
understand the mystic and lofty nature of Catherine.
She felt that she gained nothing by these repetitions,
and begged to be released from the obligation. Later
she knew Brigitta's beautiful daughter, who bore the same
name as herself.

The wild and fantastic " revelations " of Brigitta had
greatly impressed Gregory, and as early as 1375 he
declared his intention of returning speedily to Rome, but
meanwhile great additions were being made to the papal
palace at Avignon, and it was noted that the name of
New Rome was given to these buildings.

If Gregory " would and he would not," there was great
excuse for his irresolution. The task before him was
one requiring a Hildebrand or an Innocent III. to deal
with it, while the papal chair was filled by a man sincerely
anxious to do right, but timid and uncertain where right
lay, his youth increasing his doubts as to his own judg-
ment, and hampered by that fatal connection between
the Church and the temporal power which Dante had
anathematised, and which Catherine would have broken
unhesitatingly could peace and reform be thus obtained,
but which Gregory and his successors maintained, as
though the Church must stand or fall by it. Deeply
troubled by the immorality and sinning which corrupted
his clergy, he yet dreaded the irritation which any effort
to check them would cause among high and low, but at
the same time he trembled at the fear that if he remained
passive, things must go from bad to worse, and that to

144 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

remain at Avignon would make the Papacy a mere
appanage of France, and suggest to Italy that she could
do very well without a Pope. " Throw off the yoke of
the foreigner" had been the ominous cry in revolted
Florence, and though there was much to be said in
favour of a residence in Avignon, where the province as
well as the towns had been bought by his predecessors,
and the Rhone made a highway through France and
towards Germany, the neighbourhood of the French
kings was not always an advantage. Benedict VII.
would willingly have returned to Rome, but Philip le
Bel would not allow it, and when the Pope insisted on
relieving the Emperor from the sentence pronounced
against him by John XXII., the king seized the Cardinals'
revenues, on which they put such pressure on Benedict
that against his conscience he was induced to yield.
Again, though nominally a free agent, it had been with
extreme difficulty that Urban V. had succeeded in leaving
Avignon, for, says a contemporary Franciscan, " the King
resisted with all his might, having led the last Pontiffs
as he would, the Cardinals being of his family and
friends."

The burning question of Avignon versus Rome was
complicated by the failure of Urban V., who had gone
back only to return disheartened three years later, and
Urban not only was a much stronger man than Gregory
XL, but in his time the States of the Church had been
reduced to obedience under the heavy hand of Cardinal
Albornoz, while now all was revolt and confusion. The
French Cardinals, who composed two-thirds of the Sacred
College, naturally used every means to oppose and dis-
courage any thought of leaving the pleasant places of
Avignon for a Rome, poverty-stricken, malarious, in
ruins, never free from popular tumults and struggles
between her lawless barons, and without any central

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 145

authority, now ruled by one great family, now another.
In their fortress erected within the Colosseum were
entrenched the Colonna, whom even a Boniface VIII.
could not effectively crush, with rule over all the district
between what is now the Piazza, of San Marcello and
the Church of the Santi Apostoli ; the Orsini held Sant'
Angelo, the Savelli the Capitol, one and all fighting each
other for purely selfish motives, absolutely indifferent to
liberty, conscience, or the good of Rome. Assassination
was constant in the streets, and the surrounding country
was swept by men at arms belonging to one baron or
another ; brigands came up to the very gates of the city,
where Petrarch was crowned with laurel amid the
acclamations of the Romans, always charmed by a show,
only to be seized by robbers as soon as he was outside
the walls.

All this and more was told to Gregory, besides which
he was greatly and not unnaturally alarmed by a letter
warning him that he was to be poisoned if he ventured
into Rome. He knew that Pope John XXII. had narrowly
escaped death from poison prepared by his chaplain, the
Bishop of Cahors, and others of his court. His less
fortunate nephew died in agony at his feet. " What
have I done to my Cardinals ! " this Pope exclaimed,
" they have sworn my death. Watch over Thy servant,
great God, for my enemies are very many ! " Gregory
put forward the letter which he had received as an
excuse to Catherine for remaining at Avignon, and she
comments at some length upon it. To have risked death
in a righteous cause seemed to her altogether desirable,
and she was scandalised by his timid alarm. " So far as
I have understood," she wrote in reply, " that person "
(the writer) " has treated your Holiness in this matter as
the soul is treated by the devil, who ofttimes under
pretext of virtue and pity injects poison into it, using that

146 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

device especially with God's servants, knowing that he
could not deceive them with open sin. Thus it seems to
me does this incarnate devil who writes to you under
cover of compassion and in holy style, for the letter feigns
to come from one holy and just, while it really comes
from wicked men, councillors of the devil, who cripple
the common good of the Christian congregation, and the
reform of Holy Church, self-seekers, looking only to their
own interest."

And then comes a pregnant hint to find out the real
source of the letter : " I do not think the man a servant
of God so far as I can see, and his language does not
show him so — the letter appears to me forged. Nor,"
she adds with some irony, " does he who wrote it know
his trade very well. He should put himself to school ; it
seems as if he knew less than a little child." Then, with
a significant allusion to the Pope's well-known nepotism
and dislike of all that was unpleasant, she continues,
" Observe, most holy Father, he first appeals to what he
knows to be the chief frailty in man, especially to such as
are very tender and pitiful in natural affection, and
toward their bodies, for such hold life dearer than others.
But I hope that by the goodness of God you will regard
His honour and the safety of your flock more than your-
self, like a good shepherd, who ought to lay down his life
for the sheep." There is a ring of irrepressible scorn in
the next paragraph. " Next, this ' poisonous ' man seems
to approve of your returning to Rome, calling it a good
and holy thing, yet he says that poison awaits you there,
and seemingly counsels you to send good and trustworthy
people before you, who apparently will find it in bottles
on the tables, ready to be given by day or month or year.
Now I quite admit that poison may be found — as for
that also on the tables of Avignon or other cities, as well
as in Rome." . There seems a covert allusion here to

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 147

the wine drunk in large quantities at the meals of
ecclesiastics in Avignon and elsewhere, according to
Tommaseo, but the earlier editor of Catherine's letters,
Gigli, takes it as meaning genuine poison, and gives a
formidable list of great men who had been thus put out
of the way — "it can be found everywhere. He thinks
you should send them, and delay your return ; he suggests
your waiting until divine judgment shall fall by this means
on those wicked ones who, according to him, seek your
death. Were he wise, he would expect that judgment to
fall on himself, since he is sowing the worst poison cast
this long time into Holy Church by seeking to stay you
from following the call of God, and doing your -duty.
Do you know how that poison would be sowed ? If you
did not go, but sent as the good man counsels, scandal
and rebellion, spiritual and temporal, would be roused up,
men finding a lie in you who occupy the seat of truth.
For since you have decided to go and have announced it,
the scandal and bewilderment and trouble in men's hearts
would be too great if they found that it did not come to
pass. . . . Much I marvel," adds Catherine, who herself
courted martyrdom as a great privilege, " at the words of
this man, who praises an act as good and holy and
religious, and then would have it given up through bodily
fear. It is not the habit of God's servants ever to be
ready to renounce a spiritual act or work on account of
bodily or temporal harm ; had they done so, none of
them had ever reached the goal. ... I beg of you for
the sake of Christ crucified that you be not a timid child,
but virile." She ends with a plain hint that the letter was
forged to scare the Pope by those around him. As usual
there is no date to hers ; it was probably written in
Avignon, for though the allusion to Gregory's having
announced his intended departure may refer to his early
declaration that he meant to return to Rome, there is a

148 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

request for an audience before she departs, and " the time
is short." It has a great interest, both from what it
reveals of the Pope's character, as read by Catherine, and
her own. The sarcasm is stinging ; she is almost out
of patience with him, as she was at times with her good
Raimondo. What does anything matter — life or bodily
suffering or death itself compared with the welfare of the
Church and doing one's duty? She cannot understand
how Gregory can think twice about it, and her " Pardon,
Father, my over presumptuous speech " comes in as an
afterthought. Such a letter as this brings the real woman
very near us. Whether, had she not gone to Avignon,
Gregory would have ever left " la ville sonnante " may be
doubted, but the course of events was soon to take her
there. Florence had much to be forgiven. The whole-
sale confiscation of ecclesiastical property, the massacre of
several priests and monks, the death of a Carthusian
Prior who had exported corn during the famine, and who
was now murdered under exceptionally horrible circum-
stances, made up a tale of offences such as began to alarm
the perpetrators and horrify all who had consciences in
the city, so that obedience was rendered to the Pope's
stern command to send delegates to answer for what had
been done. Three were chosen, one of whom was the
patriot Barbardori, who held the office of Captain of the
People. His two companions were also men of note in
the Republic, Domenico di Silvestro and Alessandro dell'
Antella.

They came to Avignon at the end of March, 1376;
the Pope received them in full consistory, justly displeased
with Florence and awaiting their submissive excuses.
But, carried away by his recollection of the sufferings of
Tuscany, Barbardori broke into an enumeration of the
wrongs committed by the Legates, their pride, their
avarice, their enormous cruelty such as thrilled the

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 149

assembly, moving even those who only understood him
through an interpreter. The Pope himself was so much
impressed that he promised to consider and redress the
grievances brought before him, in which he was supported
by the few Cardinals of Italian birth, but the overwhelm-
ing influence of the French ones turned the scale, and
when the Ambassadors were recalled, and entered the
great hall full of hope and gratitude, to learn the Pope's
final decision, they were thunderstruck at hearing that an
interdict was to be laid on Florence. The sentence
carried with it the deprivation of all spiritual privileges,
and struck a deadly blow at the prosperity and the
commerce of the merchant city, and was the more cruel
that no reason had been given to expect it.

For a moment the three delegates stood aghast and
incredulous ; then Barbardori flung himself down before
the great crucifix at the end of the hall and exclaimed,
" Great God ! we delegates of the Florentines appeal to
Thee and to Thy justice from the unjust sentence of Thy
vicar. O Thou who canst never err, whose anger is ever
tempered with mercy, Thou whose will is that the peoples
of the earth shall be free and not slaves, Thou who dost
abhor tyrants, be to-day the help and shield of the people
of Florence who in Thy name will strive for their right
and liberties." *

Great confusion followed this passionate appeal to a
higher court than that of the Pope ; shouts of " pre-
sumptuous fellow! crazy rascal!" brokeout and the delegates
were pushed violently out of the hall, but Barbardori was
beyond feeling such poor insults, and, had he cared to
listen, he might have heard some there mutter that here
was a brave man, in whom a ray of antique virtue had
shone out.

At first the effect of the interdict on Florence was to
1 St Antoninus, Hist, of the Papacy.

ISO SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

rouse immense indignation, and for a while the peace
party ceased to exist. Excommunication had lost much of
its terrors in Italy, and the Florentines did not at first
realise what the effect would be in other countries. But
too soon they learned what it meant to find themselves
banned and prescribed, unable to buy or sell in the great
fairs of Europe, their contracts annulled, their debtors
released from all liabilities. Commercial rivals and
enemies took instant advantage of the situation ; trade
fell dead, workshops were closed ; no vessels came up the
Arno ; poverty stalked ghastly through the city. Besides
this, the consciences of pious men and women were
grievously troubled at the cessation of religious rites,
the populace, hungry and workless, began to murmur and
threaten, and the Eight of War, alarmed by the rising tide
of discontent, suggested calling in Catherine of Siena to
mediate between Florence and the Pope. It was known
that she had already written to him on behalf of the city,
and he was said to have an extraordinary respect for her,
and on more than one occasion to have asked her adVice.
She had also written to Niccolo Soderini, a patriotic
citizen who had held the offices of Gonfaloniere della
Giustizia and Prior of the Arts — in the merchant city
Arts stood for Trades — and her letter had suggested
peace and reconciliation. Niccolo Soderini was sent to
Siena to beg her to come to Florence, and use her
influence with the Pope, and Catherine, though hardly
risen from a sick bed, at once consented, and went for the
second time to Florence. Hardly more than two years
before she had entered the city gates for the first time,
slandered, in disgrace with her sister Mantellate, summoned
to appear and disculpate herself if she could before a
Chapter of the Order. In a contemporary manuscript,
as we have seen, it is recorded that " there came
there in May 1374 when there was a Chapter of the

STATUK IN WOOD OF ST. CATHERINE

BY NRKOCCIO l.ANUI

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 151

Friars Preachers, by command of the Master of the Order,
one with the habit of a pinzochera (sister) of St Dominic,
called Catherine of Jacopo of Siena." Now the
" pinzochera " was implored to come as mediator between
the city and Avignon, the one person whose voice might
prevail with an angered Pope !

Her ready good offices for the formidable rival of her
own city is a fresh proof of her courage and large
generosity at a time when " country " meant to an Italian
merely his own native place, whose interests he was bound
to prefer to everything else. So far was this carried that
old commentators on the " Divina Commedia " explain
Dante's unflattering surprise at finding " Giudice Nin
gentil " l in no worse place than Purgatory by his having
known that the unpatriotic judge had ruled his province
in Sardinia for its own good rather than to the advantage
of his native city of Pisa. The good fortune of each
town was regarded as the calamity of its neighbour.
There was no thought at all of a united Italy in the
modern sense, any more than there was of what is now
called liberty, though it may have crossed a few elect
minds, already touched by the breath of the Renaissance,
such as Petrarch's, and possibly Catherine's. In the case
of Petrarch, absence, reverence for Italy's great past,
admiration for her buildings and her scenery taught him
to regard her as one whole. It is not his birthplace,
Arezzo, which he exalts in writing to his friend Francesco
Nelli, but his country. With Catherine Christian charity
broke down all barriers, and, like Rienzi, she longed for
" a brotherhood of cities," though an Italy under one
ruler was an inspiration unknown to her. The help
lately afforded by Florence had created a temporary friend-
ship between Sienese and Florentines, otherwise her fellow-
townsman might have put obstacles in the way of her

1 Purg. viii. 11. 52-54.

152 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

good offices for a city which had always been a danger to
Siena. Even in the present day ill feeling has not quite
died out between the two towns ; Florence is slightly
contemptuous of Siena, and Siena flatters herself that the
defeat of Monteaperto still is grievous to her former rival.
Yet she went at once when called to help the Florentines,
and their historian Ammirato testifies that " although
there was no lack of those who spoke ill of and blamed
her, she truly was by the greater number of men and
women reputed a most acceptable and dear servant
of God."

A most difficult task lay before her. The multiplicity
of offices in the government of Florence, the short time
they were often held, the contrary interests of those who
filled them, the intertwined faction, the jealousies and
suspicions of high and low made a labyrinth where it was
hardly possible to find a clue. Soderini introduced her
to the Captains of the People, and she saw and spoke
with all the other leading men in the city, seeking to
understand the general feeling of the townsfolk and what
the real position of affairs was. There was now a party
of moderates, led by Soderini, who urged that she should
be sent to Avignon to plead with the Pope face to face,
but this plan was unwelcome to the Eight of War, to
whom peace meant not only loss of position and authority,
but the prospect of being called to account for their
stewardship. They had made too many enemies not to
fear the day of reckoning. They did not venture to
oppose the peace party openly, but that Catherine did not
feel sure of their support is shown by her words, quoted
by herself in a letter sent from Avignon. " See, signori, if
you truly mean to submit to the Sovereign Pontiff I will
flinch from no toil or trouble in bringing this matter to a
happy end, but on no other condition will I go."

She sent Raimondo to Avignon, to prepare her way,

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 153

and while waiting for his report, refreshed herself amid
the anxieties and toils which crowded on her by visiting
the Churches in Florence, spending much time in beautiful
Santa Maria Novella, not yet completed, but she would
see the frescoes painted in what is now called the Spanish
Chapel, probably by her fellow-townsman Simone Memmi,
with their scenes from the life of St Dominic, where black
and white dogs — domini canes— represent his monks,
and bite and hunt heretics in the form of wolves. And
opposite she would find a quaint version of the angels
proclaiming that which was her heart's desire, peace on
earth and goodwill to men, while the shepherds gaze
startled at the angelic choir overhead, one holding back
his dog which leaps furiously upward, barking at the
angels, and overhead on a hilltop are sheep and lambs,
and an angel bends downward and stretches out his
hand to stroke them. She went to other places too,
in the surrounding country, where her name is still held
in honour ; in Val d1 Elsa a chapel was built over a
fountain at which she drank ; in Pontorno lives a tradition
that she came there just when the bell for the church was
being founded, and cast her ring into the molten metal,
in memory of which the bell received her name.1

She was conscious of the difficulties in her way as
to reconciling the Pope at Florence, but full of hope,
earnestly repeating what she had already enforced by
letters to Soderini and others, that the duty of the
Florentines was to humble themselves before the justly
offended Pope, " but worse things came upon them than
ever their forefathers had known," while on the other
hand she wrote to Gregory, sending her letter by Neri
di Landoccio, whose rank and accomplishments would
claim consideration at the Papal Court, putting before
Gregory the wrongs of Florence and the intolerable

1 Gigli.

154 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

tyranny of his Legates. Raimondo da Capua was already
negotiating there. But again Gregory would and would
not, according to the influence which chanced to be
uppermost. While ready to treat with the Florentines
and constantly asking Catherine's advice, he was making
preparations for a war in Italy which was to disgrace his
pontificate as one of the most savage of that bloodstained
century. The commander-in-chief was not even a lay-
man, but one of the Sacred College, Cardinal Robert of
Geneva, a daring soldier, one day to be anti-pope. He
led a horde of mercenaries, Bretons, Germans, English,
French, who laid Romagna waste, and shocked profoundly
an age not easily moved by crime or cruelty, by the sack
of Cesena. When the cry of that miserable city went up
to heaven, did Gregory XI. recollect his own solemn letter
to the Black Prince, representing to him the horrors of
war? When in 1377 this "enormous crime," as the
Archbishop of Prague most justly called it, was committed,
Florence took instant advantage of it, appealing to all
Italy and the rulers of Christendom against it, and not
one voice was heard to excuse it ; for the moment it
greatly strengthened the League, and rendered all efforts
to obtain peace vain. This iniquity had not yet taken
place when Catherine was at Florence, or she might never
have been sent to Avignon, so great was the indignation
against Gregory. As it was, she felt the discouragement
of the conflicting parties in the city and the want of
result of her letters to the Pope, in which she vainly
urged pity for his flock, his little sheep, worth so much
more to the Church than gold or lands. He was by no
means a cruel man, but a weak one, and a weak man
irritated and frightened is capable of any cruelty. He
asked her advice, but he listened only to the voices of
his fears and of his French Cardinals. Fearing that
letters were of little use, Catherine prepared to go herself

CATHERINE IN AVIGNON 155

to Avignon, as the moderate party in Florence had
wished, and she wrote once more to Gregory, announcing
her arrival as Ambassadress of the Florentines and to
speak in the name of all Italy which implored him "to
linger no longer in Babylon " ; it was high time to go to
Rome. It was indeed. There were seditious cries there
that if the Pope did not return speedily, Rome would
elect another, and an anti-pope was not a thing unknown.
When Louis of Bavaria came to Italy, Rome warned John
XXII. that if he did not come back, they would receive
the Emperor, and Sciarra Colonna, whose name alone was
a threat to Popes, was elected Captain of the People.
The Roman populace demanded a Roman Pope, and
with no more consecration than the consent of Louis,
Pietro di Corvara was proclaimed Pontiff and created
Cardinal. But the tide ebbed ; Louis quitted Rome,
Sciarra Colonna did the same ; Nicholas V. as the
schismatic Pope was called, fled to a castle in Pisan
territory, and thence was taken to Avignon, and led into
the hall where the Consistory sat, with a halter round his
neck. On the whole he was generously treated. Pope
John spared his life, and he was kept in a not severe
imprisonment, with books to pass the time, and so dis-
appeared from the world.

But the fact that there had been anti-popes who
was received by Rome and many ecclesiastics, together
with the discovery that numbers of the country priests had
encouraged their flocks to drive out the Legates, alarmed
Gregory seriously, and his advisers assured him that
concessions spelled weakness, and advised severe measures.
He still listened now to Catherine's counsels and his
Italian Cardinals, now to his French ones, uncertain of
his own judgment, anxious to do right, afraid to do
wrong whichever way he turned. He was one of those
gentle, over conscientious, disastrous rulers who so

156 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

often appear at critical times, and ruin themselves and
others with every desire to act justly and wisely, drifting
hither and thither, and always led by stronger and less
scrupulous spirits, and Catherine's lot was to be among
such as

" Fought in vain
For those who knew not to resign or reign."

CHAPTER VIII

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS

IT is unfortunate that neither Raimondo nor any of
Catherine's followers give details of her journey to
Avignon. That it was slow and dangerous is
certain ; she travelled through country disturbed by war
and where at any moment the Free-lances might appear ;
very few of her company were capable of bearing arms,
and among them were helpless women, chosen from
among the Mantellate, to share her perils and have the
coveted honour of seeing the Pope and receiving his
benediction, a privilege for almost seventy years almost
unknown to Italians, besides which, although they must
have been rather a hindrance on the way, she thus had
witnesses to testify all that she did to any of the sisters
left behind who might murmur or criticise.

Whether Florence provided funds for the journey is not
known, but difficulties and fatigue were minimised as far as
possible by the Buonconti, Catherine's kind hosts when at
Pisa, who accompanied her and made arrangements for rest
and travelling. One of the very few notices that throw
any light on the arrangement is a chance mention that
at meals the men of the party were served first, eating
alone, and then the women.

They left Florence in May 1376, a party of about
twenty, among whom, to his great joy, was Stefano
Maconi. While still in Siena she had told him that
his dearest wish would be accomplished, to which he

158 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

answered, " My dearest Mother, I have no greater wish
than that of always remaining near you." " It shall be
fulfilled," was her smiling reply. Stefano could not but
think of all the obstacles in the way — sex, rank, his
parents' plans for him, and said nothing, but when chosen
to accompany her to Avignon he left with joy, as he says
in a letter preserved in the Library of the Grande
Chartreuse — as long as there were monks and a library
there — father, mother, brothers and sisters, so happy was
he to serve her. He acted as one of her most trusted
secretaries, and was loved by her " with the tenderness
of a mother, and far more than he deserved," as he tells
the friend in Venice to whom the letter is addressed, and
" consequently several of her disciples conceived a strong
feeling of jealousy."

Besides Maconi there were Neri dei Pagliaresi in her
company, and Don Giovanni Tantucci, and Neri
Landoccio. Her journey was overland, since it is stated
in the Bull of her canonisation by Pius II. that "to
reconcile the Florentines and the Church she did not
hesitate to cross the Apennines and the Alps in order to
reach Gregory." Her route was the same as Dante's ;
she too followed the Roman road along the Cornice, now
coming down to the shore, now climbing high aloft ; she
too descended the steep cliffs of Noli and passed under
the ruined Turbia and passed through the Esterels, and
we may be certain that one so sensitive to the beauty of
nature was charmed by that beautiful scenery. St
Bernard might travel for a long day beside the Lake of
Geneva, lost in meditation, and at the end of his
journey say, " A lake ? Where was it ? " but Catherine
was made in a different mould. Stefano Maconi records
her delight in the mountain flowers, and how she called
the attention of her companions to them, and we know
how the sight of the sea impressed her. But she could

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 159

not linger ; she longed to reach Avignon and plead that
Gregory would pardon Florence and return to Rome ;
besides which the thought of finding herself in the
presence of the Pope was a spur that drove her on, ill
and weak though she was. On the i8th of June 1376,
she reached Avignon.

Petrarch had found no words bad enough for " la ville
sonnante," as it was called from the ever-ringing bells of
its Churches. To him it was " avaricious Babylon, the
most smelly of cities, horribly windy, ill-built, incon-
venient, the inferno of the living, a sink of vice, the oppro-
brium of man," and finally, " the stink of the universe."
Nevertheless, he spent a good deal of time there, and his
rhetoric must be taken with several grains of salt.

Other writers give a different aspect of the little city
by the Rhone, with its palace piled up on the rock over-
head, a wicked little city which had become more
luxurious than any town in Christendom since it could
boast of being the seat of the Papacy. " In the streets,
where all kinds of goods are displayed," says Calisse,
" sheltered from the sun by awnings extended high above
them, moves a restless and singular crowd, such as could
hardly be found elsewhere. Here are splendid cavalcades
of ladies, knights and cardinals, all purple, silk and
glittering armour, hawk on fist, pages and jugglers around
them. Troops of light-hearted students, bands of pilgrims
with gourd and staff, friars of all kinds and colours,
doctors in their robes, theologising as they go> clerics
come from every part to ask for dispensations and pre-
bends, astrologers, poets, insolent mercenaries, Italians
and French, now brawling, oftener revelling together,
without a thought of the morrow, and over all, most
threatening of strongholds, is the seat of the Vicar of
Christ"

Catherine had seen three of the chief cities of Italy,

160 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Siena on her three hills, Pisa and her mart, " Queen of
the Western waves," Florence with her " architecture of
civil war," but nothing which she could have beheld
could have prepared her for such a scene as Avignon
presented. With her lively interest in her fellow-creatures
she must have been greatly struck by it, although all
would have seemed unimportant compared to the palace
overhead where she would find Gregory.

Raimondo met her and translated to her a Latin letter
from the Pope, who had ordered a livree to be prepared
for her. This was the name given to the palaces of
Cardinals in Avignon ; that destined for Catherine and
her companions had belonged to one who according to
some accounts was dead, to others, absent at that time.
It was built in the shape of a great tower, and in a later
century passed into the hands of the Jesuits.

In its beautiful chapel Catherine was kneeling the next
morning when the Pope sent one of his dignitaries to
greet her and ask for her prayers. This was Thomas
Petra, the papal pronotary, who became one of her
warmest adherents, and was in Rome at the time of her
death. Although the hot weather had hardly begun,
Gregory had already retired to the country palace where
the Popes were accustomed to spend the summer months,
and two days elapsed before he returned to Avignon and
received her. She spent these in visiting the hospital
founded by the nuns of Sta Prassede, detached from their
convent, which was outside the town, and then the
Dominican friars, in whose monastery their founder had
blessed a well for the use of the community when there
during the too memorable year when he presided there
over a council which decided on war against the Albigenses.
In this monastery sat the Inquisition, out of reach of the
French Parlements, which steadily opposed its intro-
duction into Gallic territory. Nothing remains of the fine

ST. CATHERINE

BY SODOMA

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 161

buildings, which were all destroyed in the Revolution.
Everything connected with St Dominic had a strong
interest for Catherine, and tradition tells that on her way
to Avignon she paused at Bologna, visiting the Dominican
convent there, and that she stood looking long at the
cemetery enclosed by cloisters where he is buried. " How
sweet it is to sleep there ! " she is reported to have said.
Had not a book ascribed to Don Giovanni delle Celle,
relating to Catherine, been lost, we might have had more
details of this memorable journey. In the monastery at
Avignon she asked and obtained the friars' advice as to
what was her wisest course amid the pitfalls of the Papal
Court, but they declared that they gained more wisdom
from her than they could give. "It is always so when
one comes to our Mother," said her followers triumphantly.
On June 28th, with Raimondo to interpret her sweet
Sienese dialect, she climbed the windy rock where the huge
pile of the papal residence stood, and entered the hall
adorned with frescoes by great Tuscan painters, all un-
happily now destroyed. Had she not been strong in the
belief of a heaven-given mission, she might well have
trembled at the ordeal of appearing in that same hall where
the delegates of Florence had fared so ill, where Barbardori
had appealed from the injustice of a Pope to the judgment
of God, and where now sat the same magnificent court, full
of unfriendly faces, all the questioning eyes turned silently
on the young ambassadress in the mantle so often
patched by her own hands.1 Seated in the centre of the
semicircle the Pope almost alone looked encouragingly at
her, and listened with marked interest as her Tuscan was
interpreted by Raimondo into Latin for his benefit, for
though he had studied for a short time in Perugia, all
lectures were given in Latin, and, like a true Frenchman,

1 Some of Catherine's biographers assert her to hare first seen the Pope
privately, but this is doubtful.

L

1 62 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

he had never cared to acquire any modern language not
his own.

Strongly moved by her pleading for Florence, he answered
in words which startled his court, and, in spite of the
warning of Barbardori's bitter delusion, filled her with hope
of peace and clemency, " That thou mayst clearly see, O
woman, that my desire is for peace and concord, let all the
matter remain in thy hands ; only I recommend to thee the
honour and welfare of Holy Church." He then left the
hall, as did Catherine, while the French Cardinals drew to-
gether to discuss this unwelcome turn of affairs, and the
measures to be taken with regard to this Mantellata, who
already had so strongly influenced the Pope, and who would
assuredly use all her power to induce him to return to Italy.
For a happy moment Catherine could believe that one
of the great objects of her journey was secured, and it is
pathetic to read the joyful words which she wrote to one
of her disciples in Siena, all unaware that she was building
on sand. " By the grace of our sweet Saviour we came
to Vignone twenty-six days ago, and I have spoken with
the Holy Father, and certain Cardinals and secular lords,
and the grace of our gentle Saviour has been greatly shown
in the matters for which we came here."

But the tragic fate of great plans begun in hope and
ending in failure which marks the whole history of Siena
followed Siena's daughter now and always. She had soon
to write in a very different strain to Florence, whence no
ambassadors came to ratify the peace to which Gregory
had consented. On the contrary, new causes of offence
arose, and a report was spread, apparently by those who
wished ill at Avignon to peace in Italy, that a heavy tax
had been laid upon the clergy. Even Catherine believed
it at the time, and she found herself in a most painful
position, ignored by the Otto della Guerra, and sneered
at by the Papal Court, who questioned if she had really

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 163

been accredited to the Pope, or had come on false pretences.
The gay ladies who formed a too prominent part of that
court were at first disdainful of her, then jealous and alarmed
by her influence with the Pope, who showed his esteem for
her unmistakably. His leaving Avignon would destroy
the brilliant circle where they shone. They set themselves
to win her. Religion became the fashion ; they learned
at what hours she went to pray in the chapel attached
to the palace where she was living, and they appeared
there too, kneeling and apparently absorbed in prayer.
Raimondo was accustomed to being asked to allow
Catherine to be seen when rapt in ecstasy ; often in Siena
had such requests been made, and they neither surprised
nor shocked him ; he saw nothing incongruous in them,
and much edified by these tokens of grace in the lively
ladies of Avignon, and, as he ingenuously owned, a little
impressed by their beauty and fine dresses, he called
Catherine to account for showing them something like
discourtesy. She turned on him with burning words,
telling him that these lovely ladies were mere hypocrites,
vile of life, full of the odour of sin. He must have
changed his opinion of them when the Pope's own niece,
Madame de Beaufort Turenne, played a cruel trick on
Catherine, as it seems with the hope of proving that her
unconsciousness of all earthly things while praying was
but feigned. Kneeling close beside her, she ran a slender
dagger deep into her foot. Catherine felt nothing at the
moment, but when she arose, she could hardly limp out
of church.1

The attempt already made by learned men in Siena
and Pisa to put her to confusion was repeated at
Avignon with the same result. A full account is given
in a letter of Maconi's to a friend who was a monk in
Venice. Three eminent ecclesiastics came to Gregory,

1 Maconi.

164 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and asked, " Most blessed Father, is this Catherine of
Siena as holy as they say ? " " We truly believe that she
is a holy virgin," answered the Pope. " And they : ' If it
please your Holiness, we will visit her.' Answered the
Pope, ' We believe that you will be edified thereby.'
Then came they to our house directly after nones in
summer time, knocking at the door, and I ran toward
them, who said, ' Tell Catherine that we would speak with
her.' Hearing this the holy virgin came down, together
with Maestro Giovanni, her confessor" — this is the only
time that Prior Giovanni is so named ; he must have had
this office because Raimondo had been absent — " and
some other religious, and in a convenient place they made
her sit in the midst. Their exordium began with a great
pride, seeking to irritate her with biting words, and
among other things they said, ' We are come from the
Holy Father, our lord, and desire to know if Florence
have sent thee, as is publicly said, and if it be true, have
they no worthy man whom for so great a business they
could send to such a lord ? And if they have not sent
thee, we marvel greatly that thou, being of mere base
womankind, shouldst presume to speak of such high
things with the Pope our lord.' But Catherine, like an
immovable column, ever gave such humble yet most
effective replies that they remained exceedingly astonished.
And having fully satisfied themselves on this matter they
put to her many questions, especially upon her abstrac-
tions and very strange way of life, and since the Apostle
saith that Satan can transform himself into an angel of
light, by what sign she knew that she was not deluded
by the demon, and many other things they said, and
indeed the discussion lasted until nightfall. Sometimes
Maestro Giovanni wanted to answer for her, but although
he was Master in theology, those others were so strong
that in a few words they confounded him, and said, ' You

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 165

ought to blush to say such things in our presence ; let
her speak for herself; she satisfies us better than you.'
Among the three was an Archbishop of the Minorites,
who showed a pharisaic countenance, and at times
seemed not to approve Catherine's words, and at last the
two turned on him, saying, ' What more do you seek
from this virgin ? Without doubt she has declared and
fully these matters more than we have found in any
Doctor, and many other signs, and those most true has
she shown us,' and thus there was schism among them.
At last they departed, edified and comforted, and told the
Pope that they had never known a soul so humble and so
illuminated. But when he heard how they had proved
Catherine, he was displeased, and excused himself to her,
adding, ' If ever they come again, have the door shut in
their faces.' The following day our Maestro Francesco da
Siena, then the Pope's physician, said to me, ' Dost know
those Prelates who went yesterday to thy house ? ' to which
I said no. He then : ' Learn that if the knowledge of
those men were put into one scale, and in the other the
knowledge of all the Roman Curia, that of those three
would weigh far heavier, and I can tell thee that if they
had not seen this virgin to be firmly founded, she would
never have taken a journey worse for her.' "

Such examinations in theology were indeed a dangerous
matter, for a chance word or inexact statement would have
given opportunity for the terrible accusation of heresy.
Enemies had already suggested that Catherine held the
doctrines of the Fraticelli, whose teaching was that priests
should own no gold or silver or worldly goods, a view
which brought them into extreme ill odour among the
higher clergy, and when Don Giovanni was fain to reply in
Catherine's place, he may have feared lest she should com-
mit herself. It is noteworthy that while she showed some
just displeasure at the snares laid in like manner for her

166 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

at Siena and Pisa, she answered the self-styled papal
messengers with perfect mildness and patience, supposing
them to have come by Gregory's desire. She had so over-
come a naturally very eager and impetuous temper that
Maconi goes so far as to say he never knew her speak with
irritation. Yet she was rarely out of pain, often worn out,
and always with countless anxieties and difficult questions
to claim her attention. The very love poured out on her
was at times exacting and a burden, and she was thwarted,
misunderstood ; her longing was for solitude and medita-
tion, but she was called to live one of incessant occupation
among people often quite uncongenial. And yet Stefano
Maconi, who saw more of her than anyone except
Raimondo and Alessia dei Saraceni, never saw her out
of temper !

Just at this time her private troubles were pressing on
her. Whenever she was away from Siena the magistrates
were dissatisfied, and jealousies sprang up among her
followers ; there were querulous complaints that she
cared more for strangers than for them. Matters went
wrong for want of her advice and superintendence ;
families, members of whom had left home to follow her,
wrote recalling them ; Stefano Maconi's mother could not
reconcile herself to his long absence ; Monna Lapa, now
an aged woman nearly eighty years of age, was another
difficulty ; she could not put up with Catherine's leaving
her and heard all the gossip in Siena about her wander-
ing from her cell ; Catherine had to write again and again
reminding her that she had not hesitated to let her sons
leave her to earn money, and surely ought not to grudge
her daughter to far more important work. To Monna
Giovanna di Corrado Maconi she also wrote, trying to soothe
her impatience at the delay in her son's return, and pointing
out that he was leading a better and higher life than he
could possibly do among the gay young nobles of Siena.

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 167

Monna Giovanna's impatience reached a climax at last,
during a long unexpected delay at Genoa, and Catherine
wrote, " Comfort yourself gently and be patient, and not
troubled because I have kept Stefano so long, for I have
taken good care of him ; through love and tenderness I have
grown one with him, and so have treated what is yours
as if it were my own. I think you have not taken this
in bad part. I wish to do whatever I can for him and
you, even unto death. You, his mother, bore him once,
and I desire to bear him and you and all your family in
tears and sweats by continual prayer and longing for
your salvation."

Whether the mother was satisfied we do not know, but
it may be conjectured that she was, as Stefano was
allowed to go to Florence as a deputy from Catherine
not long after his return from Avignon.

All minor troubles were swallowed up by the great
and increasing anxiety with regard to Florence which
had replaced Catherine's first glad hopes. Ten days after
her arrival in Avignon she found herself obliged to write
severely to the Eight of War, warning them to act
straightforwardly. " I complain greatly of you if what
they say here be true, namely, that you have taxed the
clergy. If this be so you have done a twofold wrong,
first because you are offending God, for you cannot do
it with a good conscience. But it seems to me that
you are losing your conscience and everything good ; it
appears as if you only cared for the passing things of
the senses, which go by like the wind. ... I tell you,
such doings are ruin to your peace, for if the Holy Father
knew it, he would feel yet greater indignation against you,
and this is what some of the Cardinals, who seek and
desire peace, are saying. Now, hearing this report, they
say, ' It does not seem as if they really wanted peace, for
then they would avoid every least act against the Holy

1 68 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Father and the usages of Holy Church.' I believe that
the sweet Christ on earth may say these or like words,
and he has very good reason to do it. ... You might
bring shame and confusion upon me," she adds, as a very
gentle reminder of the painful position in which she found
herself, " for nothing but shame and confusion could come
of it if I told the Holy Father one thing, and you said
another. I beg that it may be so no longer. Rather, seek
by word and deed to show that you want peace, not war.
I have spoken with the Holy Father, and by God's
goodness and his own he heard me graciously showing
that he had a love for peace. When I had talked with
him for a good long time he ended by saying that if
things were as I set before him, he was ready to receive
you as sons, and do what seemed most pleasing to me. I
say no more here. It seems decidedly that no other rule
can be given till the ambassadors come. I marvel that
they are not already here. When they arrive I will see
them and then the Holy Father, and as I find things, so
will I write to you. But you with your taxes and
novelties spoil all that is sown. Do so no more, for
the love of Christ crucified and for your own advantage."
The ambassadors came at last, but from the brief
tenure of office in Florence a new set of men were now
in power, and the Eight of War had been able to choose
delegates averse to peace, and who perfectly understood
that their business was to make it appear to the Florentines
that through Catherine's ill management the Pope refused
to negotiate with them. Such treachery could not cross
her mind, and she was unable to understand the meaning
of their conduct, but the Pope, shrewd and versed in the
ways of men, perhaps too kept aware of the secret policy
of the Eight by adherents in Florence, warned her what
to expect. " They are deceiving you, Catherine," he said.
The truth of this was forced upon her by the studied and

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 169

insolent neglect of the three ambassadors, who, far from
consulting, actually disowned her. It cost her bitter
tears, and, writing to Buoncorso di Lapo, one of the
" Grandi " of Florence, she says, " Alas, alas ! dearest
brother, I grieve much over the fashion in which peace
has been asked for from the Holy Father. Words have
been more to the fore than deeds. This I say because
when I went to you and your Signori, they spoke as if
they wished to humble themselves, asking mercy from the
Holy Father, and I said to them, ' Then, Signori, if you
really mean to show all humility in word and deed, I will
labour all you can desire, otherwise I do not go,' and
they answered that they were well pleased. Alas, alas !
most dear brother, that was the way and the door by
which you should have entered, and there was no other.
Had you followed that way in deeds as in words, you
would have found it the most glorious that ever man had.
And this I say not without warrant, for I know what
the mind of the Holy Father was, but since we began to
leave that way, following the subtle fashions of the world,
doing otherwise than words had implied, matter not for
peace but for more disturbance has been given to the
Holy Father. For your ambassadors coming here have
not behaved in a manner to make them held servants of
God. You have behaved after your own manner. And
never have I been able to confer with them as you told
me to do when I asked for the letter of credentials."

As if to show that he in no way held Catherine re-
sponsible for the conduct of the Florentines, Gregory
treated her with constant favour. By his order she spoke
several times to the Cardinals and great ecclesiastics in
the hall of the Consistory, where their unaccustomed ears
heard startling truths. Why, she asked on one occasion,
standing before them, a slender figure in the black mantle
and white serge dress of the Mantellate, did she find only the

i/o SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

worst vices in a court where all virtues should dwell ! She
stood silent, waiting for a reply. The Pope, uneasy at
the anger which he saw around him, interposed by
asking what she, only lately come, could know of the
matter. Catherine stood erect, with an air of authority
which astonished every one, and lifting one hand to
heaven, said, " I will dare to say that I was more aware
when I lived in my own city of the infection of the sins
committed in the Court of Rome every day than are they
who commit them." The Pope had no reply to make,
and Raimondo, although well used to her fearless speeches,
listened with astonishment at her boldness not unmixed
with alarm. " I shall never forget the dignity with which
she did not fear to speak to so great a Prelate," he
writes.

It needed no superhuman powers to perceive the sins
and follies of the Court at Avignon, with its luxurious
prelates and its gay ladies whose names fall on the ear
like music — Miramonde and Elys and Enemonde Briande
and Estephanette and all the rest, but Catherine could
read hearts in a way that almost made those about her
fear her powers. " Truly, dearest mother," said Stefano
Maconi, between jest and earnest, " it is as dangerous to be
with you as to cross the sea, for you see all that is in us,"
and Raimondo testifies, " She often told us the thoughts
of our hearts as fully as if they were hers, not ours ; I know
it by myself, for she often blamed me for certain thoughts
of mine which indeed I had, and I — I will not blush to
own this, since it is for her fame — I would seek falsely to
excuse myself, and she would reply, ' Why deny what I
see plainly? more so than yourself/ " It might not need
much discernment to guess the thoughts of one so honest
and simple, but Fra Bartolomeo goes a step further.
Astounded by her knowledge of what he and another friar
had spoken deep in the night, he exclaimed, " O mother,

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 171

how do you know this ? " She answered, " Know that
since our sweet Saviour was pleased to give me sons and
daughters, nothing which concerns you is hidden from
me ; I watch and pray for you/and if you had good eyes,
you would see that I am with you and behold all you
do." Catherine here claimed a power which undoubtedly
exists in certain cases, and which is acknowledged, in our
own day in many who are not saints, but which science
has yet to explain.

Baffled in her efforts to make peace between Gregory
and Florence, obliged to put aside her hopes of a Crusade,
Catherine set herself strenuously to induce the Pope to
return to Rome. Not only was Rome his proper place,
but if the luxurious and vicious Court of Avignon were
broken up, a step of great importance would be taken
towards the reformation of ecclesiastical morals. Urban V.
had thought the same, and given it as one of his reasons
for leaving Provence. Besides this, every Pope must have
felt that not in a palace on a rock amid a small Provencal
town, but where the blood of martyrs had consecrated the
soil and where were glorious associations such as only Rome
could boast was the rightful seat of the Papacy. As
early as 1375 Gregory had sent letters to different Princes,
declaring his firm intention of going back there, but he
had done no more. The sense of an obvious duty unful-
filled troubled him ; the adjurations of Petrarch and of
Brigetta of Sweden rang in his ears ; his Legates assured
him that unless he arrived quickly, the Popes might lose
both their spiritual and temporal hold on Italy ; Catherine
of Siena told him the same. He answered that he was
fully purposed to return, but he had neither energy nor
courage to break through the obstacles raised up all
round him by those whose interests it was to keep him in
Avignon. " All the Cardinals of this tongue " (French)
" are opposed to his going, and so are his father and

i;2 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

brothers, and I hear that the Duke of Anjou is coming to
hinder it if he can," Cristofero di Piacenza wrote from
Avignon that July of 1376, and Gregory XI. did not
share the view of Benedict XII., who said that a Pope
should be like Melchisedek, and have neither father or
mother nor genealogy.

Cristofero di Piacenza had been correctly informed ;
the Duke of Anjou was really coming to Avignon, charged
by his brother, Charles V., to dissuade the Pope from
leaving Provence, and to counteract the influence of the
" pinzochera," who had gained so great an ascendancy
over him. He arrived prepared to look on her as an
enemy ; he became her friend. At his request she went
to visit his wife, who disliked the court at Avignon and
its fair, frail ladies, and was staying at the border fortress
of Villeneuve, which belonged to the Duke. The town
beneath it can now only be reached by a wooden bridge,
for of the stone one, built in 1188, only a few arches
remain. Strong as it was, it could not resist the tremen-
dous current of the "arrowy Rhone," and in 1669 the
greater part fell. But Catherine crossed it in 1376, and
no doubt was told the legend of its shepherd builder,
St Benezet, whose body was placed in a little chapel on
the bridge, which is there still, but his remains were carried
to St Didier in Avignon, where they have remained ever
since, undisturbed even in the Revolution which swept
away so much that was ancient and interesting in the city
of the Popes.

The Duke of Anjou was not a particularly estimable
man, but he had a good wife, and Catherine spent three
days in his castle, during which she had much conversa-
tion with the Duke, and inspired him with a strong desire
to head the Crusade, and her hopes rose again. Now
she could tell Gregory that the leader had been found
without whom he had declared nothing could be done.

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 173

He replied by objecting that until peace was made
among Christian nations, it was useless to plan Crusades.
Catherine was not of this opinion. Where he saw diffi-
culties, she saw hopes. To proclaim a holy war would
draw those now engaged in fighting for themselves into a
nobler warfare, and occupy the mercenaries. "If these
gained victories," she argued, " the Pope could deal with
the Christian princes ; if vanquished, he would have at
least saved their souls, besides which, many Saracens
might be converted : " Catherine was of an optimistic
nature.

Either from genuine admiration, or mindful of his
mission to detach the Pope from Catherine, Anjou urged
her to go to Paris and negotiate a treaty of peace with
England. It seemed however improbable that since the
Pope's effort to mediate had been received with almost
insulting indifference by England, hers would be suc-
cessful, and she refused, but wrote the long letter to
Charles V. already alluded to. His people flatteringly
called him the Wise, a name which she gracefully alludes
to when she writes, " Therefore I beseech you, as wise, act
as a good steward, holding your] possessions as things
lent." She pleads for peace at any price, and war
with only infidels, and tells him that her brother " missere
il duca d'Angio " is, she thinks, desirous to take the cross.
From the heading in a codex, the letter appears to have
been written by the desire of the Duke.1 What Charles V.
thought of her letter does not appear, but he did not
make peace, nor did Anjou head a crusade ; instead he
died ingloriously in Apulia, a supporter of the anti-pope
and of Giovanna of Naples, and thus another great hope
of Catherine's proved but delusion.

The question whether to go or stay tortured Gregory.
His family and his Cardinals put before him the un-

1 Tommaseo, Letter 235

174 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

healthiness of Rome, and the dangerous state of the
country, the greater distance from France, Germany and
England, the long time which it would take for messengers
and despatches to pass between him and the Courts of
Christendom if he went to Rome ; the need of hastening
negotiations for peace between Charles V. and the English
Government. The Black Prince had died, his son was a
young boy. Now was the time for a durable peace.
And Gregory was attached to England, as he did
not fear to show, and Englishmen were always wel-
come at Avignon. Frenchman though he was, he always
dealt fairly towards England, though he held that he had
reason to complain of her. The Papal Treasury was
uncomfortably empty ; the war with Bernardo Visconti
ruinous. Gregory asked for subsidies from all the faithful,
but in his letter to the Archbishop and Bishops in Eng-
land, he complains that all countries have responded
to his appeal, theirs excepted. He also begs King
Edward III. not to hinder money being collected for him,
a request which met with a tacit refusal, since the King's
justiciaries and also the Bishop of Lincoln were summoned
to Avignon for having impeded the collection. Another
letter written to Edward three years later in 1375,
speaks of his feeling it his bounden duty to visit Rome
speedily. The time was come when this decision must
be carried out, if he were to continue to rule in Italy.
He longed for some sign which might guide him, and
sent a message, bidding Catherine put up special prayers
for him. The supplication uttered by her in ecstasy was
heard and written down by his Pronotary, Petra, and is
found among others which have been preserved. One of
the Buonconti was also present, and relates that after
making a second prayer she remained rigid and uncon-
scious, with her arms crossed on her breast for about an
hour, without visibly breathing. Alarmed at the length

THE SWOON Of ST. CATHERINE

BV SODOM A

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 175

of her trance, those about her sprinkled her with holy
water, and she came slowly back to life, murmuring,
" Praise be to God, now and for ever."

This state has been regarded by some who have
written of Catherine as merely hysterical, but it differed
from such an experience in being a time of vivid spiritual
illumination, of which a distinct memory remained, though
little could be put into words. It also differed in that
though weak and feeble before it occurred, she con-
stantly felt refreshed and full of energy after it ceased.
Other mystics of various communions knew and know
conditions of the same kind. It is this state that St
Teresa calls " the orison of union," when " the soul is
fully awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as regards
things of this world, and with regard to herself . . . she
is absolutely dead to the things of this world, and lives
only in God. ... I do not even know whether in this
state she has enough life left to breathe. . . . When she
returns to herself it is wholly impossible for her to doubt
that she has been in God, and God in her. ... If you
ask how can a soul see and comprehend that she has
been in God, since during the vision she has neither sight
nor understanding, I reply that she does not see it then,
but that she sees it clearly later, after she has returned to
herself, not by any vision, but by an abiding certainty
which only God can give her." And in another place
she writes, " Often feeble and wrought on by severe
pains before the ecstasy, the soul comes forth from it
filled with health and admirably ready for action ... as
if God had willed that the body, obedient to the desires
of the soul, should share in her happiness."

More or less Catherine shared the same experiences as
the Spanish saint.

Hoping to bring Gregory to a decision, she asked for
an interview, and went with Raimondo to the palace,

176 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

where she found Gregory standing at a window, looking
with sad eyes on the wide view extended far below.
She could not venture to address him until he should
turn and speak, and she paused before a table on which
lay a beautifully illuminated missal, with silver clasps.
Gregory was both a student and a book collector ; at one
time he desired a Canon of Paris to have certain works of
Cicero which he had heard of in the Sorbonne copied as
soon as possible by capable scribes ; at another he bade
his Legate de Noellet have all Petrarch's works sought
out and copied, especially his Latin poem of " Africa "
and his letters, and he also invited the poet to Avignon
in a letter written by his own hand. Clement VI. had
already employed Petrarch in the congenial task of
collecting ancient MSS. for the papal library, and he was
none the less welcome at the court because he had said
exceedingly hard things of it — things which his own life
hardly gave him the right to say. Catherine must have
heard of them and him, and though his love poetry would
not interest her, she may have read his Canzone to the
Virgin and some of his religious sonnets, but there is no
allusion to him in her letters.

Pleased by her admiration for the missal, Gregory
came up to her and said, " Here my spirit finds repose
in study and in contemplating the lovely things around
me." But Catherine had no sympathy for this mood,
and looking straight at him, as her manner was, she said,
" To do our duty, most Holy Father, and act according
to God's will, you shall abandon these beautiful things
and take the road to Rome, where perils and malaria and
discomfort await you, and where the delights of Avignon
will be but a vain recollection."

There was something in Gregory's character, notwith-
standing his nervous timidity, which responded to words
like these, but several other interviews were needed be-

ST. CATHERINE PERSUADES THE POPE TO RETURN TO ROME

BY SEBASTIANO CONCA

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 177

fore he could definitely make up his mind, and Catherine's
whole energy was needed to support him. To the argu-
ment used by his Cardinals that Clement IV., or Pope
Chimente, as she calls him, never acted against the advice
of the Sacred College, and even if it seemed to him that
his was the right view, yet followed their advice, she
answered, " Alas, most holy Father, they bring forward
Pope Clement IV., but say nought to you of Pope Urban
V., who when in doubt asked their counsel, but for a
thing clear and sure to him as is your departure to you,
he heeded not their opinion, but acted on his own, and
cared nothing though they were all against him. Use a
holy deceit ; appear to delay and then act at once, for
the sooner you do so, the less harass and trouble you will
have ... let us go soon, babbo mio dolce" — no transla-
tion can give the equivalent of the caressing Italian —
" without any fear."

Catherine understood the character that she was deal-
ing with. Gregory had not courage for open resistance,
but he seized on the idea of a " santo inganno," and
while allowing it to be supposed that the date of leaving
Avignon was still uncertain, secretly hurried on his pre-
parations. A galley had come to Marseilles to receive
him before his Cardinals realised what was about to
happen. He appointed the Vicomte de Turenne to
govern the city and province of Avignon, advised by
such Cardinals as would not go to Rome, and the
Sicilian barons were bidden to meet him at Ostia in
about a fortnight. Opposition now only angered him,
and when the day of departure came he put aside his
weeping mother and sisters, and would listen to none of
those who implored him yet to change his mind. It was
a cruel moment, and pain made him cruel also. As he
left his chamber, his father prostrated himself on the
threshold, refusing to let him pass. " God hath said
M

1 78 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk ; thou
shalt trample on the lion and the dragon," Gregory
exclaimed, and with this singular quotation passed on
amid the lamentations of his household and of the
Avignesi, who crowded round, beseeching him not to
desert them.

A prolix account of his journey is given by Amelio da
Aleta, Bishop of Sinigaglia and his chief almoner, in
extremely bad Latin verse, in which is recorded the mis-
fortunes and incidents which attended it, not omitting the
good cheer which sea-sickness does not seem to have pre-
vented the travellers from enjoying. He describes the
train of cardinals on white horses or in carriages, the
chaplains and domestics, the armed knights to guard not
only the Pope but waggons full of treasure — apparently
money was after all not scarce ; the reception at Aix, the
toiling over barren hills, the increasing heat, the crowds
which met them at Marseilles, where they embarked,
escorted, as we learn from another source, by a galley
sent from Florence, to show that although at war with
him, she welcomed the Pope back to Italy. From the
time that the reluctant company, all in tears, including
Gregory himself, took ship, ill fortune attended them. On
leaving Marseilles they experienced all the horrors of the
Golfe du Lyon ; " furious winds made them believe death
at hand ; all crowded together dismayed and trembling.
Even the sailors were pale, and the passengers moaned
and called on St Cyriac." Not till they reached the port
of Villafranca did they obtain a respite. There they
landed and " fell like men starving on the good cheer
provided," but hardly had they again put to sea when the
storm again rose, and from Monaco they were forced to
put back to Villafranca. With tattered sails and sinking
hearts they made the harbour. " All was confusion, nothing
audible but roaring waves, heart-breaking cries and angry

CATHERINE AS AMBASSADRESS 179

shouts. The next day the sea had grown calmer. ' O
lily of pontiffs ! ' we said, ' behold how the sun shines out !
All nature seems to greet thee, and we thy servants salute
thee in the delicious city of Savona.' "

The relief of a calm sea and sunshine must have sin-
gularly beautified Savona in the poetical eyes of the
Bishop of Sinigaglia.

It was however many days later that the Pope arrived
at Genoa, and he had had time to repent of having left
Avignon and doubt whether he had done well to listen
to Catherine. Had she not been there to steady his
wavering resolution, even then he would have gone back
to Provence.

CHAPTER IX

POPE AND SAINT

/CATHERINE had no share in the difficulties and
I luxuries and discomforts of the Pope's voyage.

Like Joan of Arc when her work was done, she only
desired to go home and resume her life as a Mantellata,
but Charles needed the Maid and Gregory needed Catherine
too much to allow them to withdraw themselves, and
Catherine was bidden to await the Pope at Genoa. What-
ever her enemies might invent, no one ventured to say
that she had accepted gifts or asked favours from any one.
Gregory allowed her only one hundred florins to pay the
expenses of herself and her company during the return
journey, to which the Duke of Anjou added another
hundred, and, even considering the greater value of
money in those days, this could not be called a large
sum.

She sought to travel as quietly and unobserved as
possible, and left Avignon unnoticed, but at Toulon it
became known that she was there, and a crowd of men
and women pressed round the hostelry where she had
alighted, calling for her. How the fame of her saintliness
and healing powers had spread there is not explained. In
Avignon — alone of any town where she stayed any time —
she worked no cures and made no converts among the
people, keeping much within doors, and often preferring
to write to the Pope rather than seek him, but Toulon
must have heard great things of her. For some time she
1 80

POPE AND SAINT 181

refused to appear, until the sobbing entreaties of a woman
that she would cure her sick baby reached her ears, moving
her so much that she came out, took the little one in her
arms, and prayed over it. The child seemed at once to
revive, and the joyful mother carried it away blessing
Catherine.

The little seaside town of Voragine, now Varazze, lay
in her homeward way. It was the birthplace of Giacomo
de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa and author of the
" Golden Legend," so popular in the Middle Ages, and
well known to Catherine, who alludes to it more than
once. She found the place plague-stricken, but paused
to pray in the Church. The inhabitants implored her
to request that the plague might cease, and she bade
them build another Church and dedicate it to the Holy
Trinity, promising that the sickness should be removed.
To this day her memory is dear to the people of Varazze,
who boast that no epidemic has ever fallen on them
since that time, and yearly a great procession in mediaeval
costumes goes to her Church, giving an excellent idea
of what such spectacles were in the Trecento. Very
early on the last day of April the little town is humming
with excitement ; at street doors a bevy of small angels
are having their wings and haloes fastened on by mothers,
while all the rest of the family superintend, or from with-
in a monastery come sounds of voices, where a young
priest is anxiously making the boys who are to take part
in the procession practise their chanting for the last
time. Trains and omnibuses pour out visitors from
Savona and Genoa and the smaller places around ;
parties come in on foot ; the inns are crowded ; so is
the street. Then the procession forms, men, women
and children, in dresses handed down no one can say
how long ; there are pilgrims from the Holy Land with
scrip and staff; standard-bearers waving heavy banners,

1 82 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

saints — saints — all the calendar seems represented, some-
times a favourite one will have half-a-dozen people who
have taken his or her name. St Dorothea is one of
these ; usually it is a child who stands for her, with a
lap full of roses. Little St John Baptists pass, in
sheepskins, leading a lamb, or with a brown arm thrown
around the neck of an infant Christ, and now it is the
Virgin Mary, wearing all the ornaments that her family
can muster, with a canopy over her head. The honour
of representing her is so great that quite a handsome sum
is paid to secure it. Among the Virgins — there are four
or five — is the only anachronism in the whole thing —
the Madonna of Lourdes. For nearly a mile between
the two Churches the long procession walks between
double and triple lines of deeply interested spectators,
all absolutely decorous, and down to the youngest child
all who have a part in it are that part, absorbed, reverent,
unconscious apparently or really of all but what they
are doing. There is no rehearsal beforehand ; these
people come from various places, but all have that in-
stinctive dramatic gift and absence of self- consciousness
which are Italian characteristics. There is blue sky
above, blue sea beside them and a background of shadowy
olives — and so all pass on to the Church dedicated, as
Catherine desired, but always called by her name, and
as many of the grown-up people as can crowd into it,
but the children go down to the shore and play and eat
hard-boiled eggs with a result which suggests a new
reading to the hymn, " How many a spot is on the robe
— That wraps an earthly saint."

The festival is probably connected with the dedication
of the Church, for Catherine passed through Varazze in
October, not April.

She and her company reached Genoa long before the
Pope, and were received in the house of a noble lady

POPE AND SAINT 183

named Orietta Scotti, a branch of whose race lived in
Siena, and was one of the noblest of her families. Gigli's
account of the Scotti is that they came to Italy in the
time of Charlemagne, and were descended " from the
famous Counts Duglas." The Genoese branch however
ascribed their origin to a captain of Free-lances, who
having fought successfully for Genoa against Pisa, settled in
the former town in the twelfth century. Orietta was a
name long handed down among them and held in honour,
because she not only harboured St Catherine, but tenderly
nursed several of her companions who fell seriously ill.
Among them was Neri di Landoccio, to the deep distress
of his friend Stefano Maconi, who threw himself on his
knees before Catherine, imploring her to use her healing
power and not let his friend die far from home. There
were occasions when she could do nothing, and was
aware that it was best so. At Pisa where she cured
many, the young friar Baronto was not one of these.
There is a ring of regretful tenderness in her reply when
he begged her to heal him of an illness incurable by
doctors though not deadly, " My child, this trial is
necessary for your salvation ; it will accompany you to
the grave, but it will not hinder you from serving God
as a friar." He accepted the answer, and was one of
her most devoted followers.

Now she answered Stefano's passionate entreaties, " My
son, why are you so troubled ? If God wills so to crown
your brother's labours you should rather rejoice than
lament." But as he persisted she told him that although
she desired to see him resigned to God's will, she and he
would pray that Neri should recover. " Remind me," she
added, " before I receive Communion to-morrow " — though
surely she could need no reminder, for Neri was nearly
as dear to her as Stefano himself. He knelt beside her
next morning in Church, and, after remaining long in

1 84 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

prayer, she looked at him, smiled and said, " Your request
is granted." And Neri recovered. Genoa was unhealthy,
and next Stefano fell ill, to the dismay of all the " college,"
for all loved him, in spite of occasional jealousies. Him
Catherine cured by laying her hand on his forehead, and
commanding him to recover. The sickness of others
seems to have been even to death, for she said to Stefano,
" I will not have you follow their example." All this
kept the travellers at Genoa, and Stefano's family grew
angry, and Lapa Benincasa wrote that she was old and
lonely and should die if her daughter would not come
back, but even had the illness of so many of her com-
panions not tied her, Catherine dared not go before
Gregory arrived. His ships must put into the harbour
to buy provisions and water, and, probably, considering
the wild weather, for repairs ; they were long due, and
Catherine awaited their coming in great anxiety, certain
that those around him were seeking even now to persuade
him to go back. Meanwhile Madonna Orietta's care and
kindness were unbounded. An affectionate letter written
by Catherine after leaving her was preserved in the family
as a precious heirloom though it was unfortunately lost
about the time when the family changed name and arms
for those of the Centurioni, by which they are later known
in Italian history. Catherine's sojourn among them was
one of the memories most proudly cherished by the
Genoese. The streets she used to go through, the apart-
ment which she occupied, the neighbouring places where
she had paused on her journey were remembered and
pointed out with pride down to the sixteenth century by
rich and poor. The lonely monastery of San Fruttuoso
which sheltered her both as she went and came boasted
of the honour ; Varazze, as we have seen, celebrates her
passage through its humble street to this day ; the room
which she chose in the house of Madonna Orietta was

POPE AND SAINT 185

looked on as a consecrated place.1 Florence, for which
she did so much, has no such tender recollections of
Catherine Benincasa.

At length the papal galleys appeared, escorted by the
fleet of the Knights of Rhodes under the command of
their Grand Master, and Catherine's apprehensions were
justified by finding Gregory depressed, troubled, and so
near yielding to the urgency of his companions that as
soon as they had recovered the fatigues of their voyage,
the cardinals induced him to call a consistory, and confirm
the vote to return to Avignon.2 The news he was met by
was not calculated to cheer him. Florence had sent
emissaries to Rome, who persuaded the populace that with
the arrival of a Pope they would find themselves enslaved,
and tumults had broken out, while the Florentines, furious
at the ravages of the Breton troops, refused to treat with
Gregory. The temptation to return to safety and popu-
larity was great. Gregory listened to his cardinals by
day, but under cover of night he stole with one or two
trusted friends to the house of Orietta Scotti, to find
strength in Catherine's firm conviction that the right road
was the one to Rome. Among the prayers of Catherine
which have been preserved is one with a significant note
appended to it, saying that it was made at Genoa " to
dissuade the Pope from returning to Avignon, things con-
trary to the journey to Rome having been deliberated in
the consistory." It is the prayer of a fervent believer,
yet startlingly unlike one so assured as was Catherine
that her God was a God of love. It runs as follows :
" O eternal God, let not Thy Vicar yield to the counsels
of the flesh, nor judge according to the senses and self-
love, nor let him permit himself to be terrified by any
opposition, and immortal Lord, if Thou art offended by
his hesitations and delays, punish them on my body
1 Gigli. 2 Capocelatro.

1 86 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

which I offer to Thee to be tormented and destroyed
according to Thy will and pleasure."

She prevailed, and on September 29th his vessels again
put out to sea, but it seemed as if even the elements com-
bined to keep him back ; so bad was the weather that
the Bishop of Sinigaglia declares it incredible, and only
to be explained as a supernatural sign of the wickedness
of the Romans. Much valuable property was washed
overboard ; the Bishop of Luni was drowned, a cardinal
died. Among their misfortunes Amelio does not fail to
record that at Porto Venere they had a most miserable
dinner, and who could tell, he adds, in the lowest of
spirits, but that they might all fall victims to the cruel
Italians who breathed nothing but hatred and fury.
Even the arrival of an ambassador from Pisa and Lucca
hardly cheered him, though he admits that they brought
" splendid gifts " of veal and lamb, comfits, bread and
Greek wine, but how could one trust the citizens of towns
which, like Siena, though not fighting against the Pope,
yet kept up friendship with the " guilty city," i.e. Florence ?

Some consolation was found in an excellent dinner at
Porto d'Ercole, but again storms rose and drove them on
the isle of Elba, fortunately on the less precipitous side of
the mountain island. They landed with great difficulty ; one
of the cardinals had even to submit to being carried on
shore pick-a-back by " a rustic clown." The force of the
wind prevented tents being set up, and even the Bishop
of Carpentras, to whom all turned in an emergency, had
nothing to suggest. There is a pretty touch for once in
Amelio's prolix narrative when he mentions that Gregory
found himself an oratory under the shade of the thick
olive woods of Elba, but discomfort is generally in his
thoughts, and it certainly suggests that accommodation
was indifferent since they found it necessary to take tents
to put up when landing for the night.

POPE AND SAINT 187

The length of this voyage seems almost incredible ; it
was not until the 6th of December that the Pope landed
at Corneto, which was in Papal territory. The popolana
of Siena had undone the work of Phillippe le Bel.

The Pope, who had been greatly mortified by the lack
of enthusiasm at his arrival in Italy, contrasting so
strongly as it did with the reception given to Urban V.,
was much gratified by the welcome given him in this, the
first town on papal territory, which he had entered.
Bearing olive branches the citizens hurried out of towers
and streets as the Pope's vessels came in sight, passing
by the promontory of Argentaro, where the beacon light
shone, as Bishop Amelio writes, brighter than the sun ; it
shines there still. Here he wrote the first part of his
poem, if it can be dignified by that name, and though he
says the time passed " very mournfully " during the five
weeks spent there, he still was so thankful to be on land,
and freed from the painful necessity of dining on " obscure
frogs," that the little town is actually described as having
wide and handsome streets. He notes too the high
towers, some of which still remain.

Christmas was passed at Corneto, where the Pope
transacted much business, and received ambassadors, after
which " the lily of the Papacy " continued his voyage,
now over calm and moonlit seas, thus bringing to nought
the predictions of the Avignonese astrologers, who had
declared that the journey would end in disaster. It had
tried Gregory severely ; worry probably had done so
still more, and his pallor and feebleness suggested that
after all the prophecies of the astrologers might be
fulfilled. Although little over forty years old, a mortal
disease was exhausting him, and making effort of mind
or body painful and reluctant.

At Ostia, on whose desolate shore Dante pictures the
souls awaiting their angel pilot whose bark will bear

1 88 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

them far over the ocean to Purgatory, Gregory paused for
a night, but did not sleep on land. Troops of Romans
came down to welcome him, and show their satisfaction
at his coming by torchlight dances and songs. It must
be owned that the performers were neither young nor
beautiful : " chorizabunt cum tubis et faculis calvi de-
crepiti cum sonore," he says in lines which may serve as
a specimen of the whole chronicle.

Ostia was left behind, and the galleys sailed up the
Tiber, then navigable, and the Pope landed close to San
Giovanni Laterano, where again he spent the night on
board ship, for the palace was too ruinous to be inhabited,
and the church was still in process of rebuilding after the
disastrous fire in 1308, which had consumed both the
basilica and its priceless contents. The Pope's journey
had lasted five months.

It was nightfall when he arrived, and the Romans
lined the banks of the river, carrying torches, to watch
his vessels sailing up against the strong current, and he
was welcomed with the same ephemeral enthusiasm which
had greeted Urban V. In the dawn of the next day,
variously given as the i6th and i8th of January, he
disembarked and proceeded to St Peter's, passing through
the city gate of San Paolo, through which Totila and his
Goths had entered. A great crowd escorted him ; knights
in armour rode backward and forward on either side of
the procession ; hundreds of " histriones " l — we would
hope less infirm than those of Ostia, — dressed in white,
danced and clapped their hands. Great nobles too were
there, representatives of the Orsini, the Conte di Fondi,
who by and by played a leading part in the Schism, one
of the Gaetani from whom sprang Boniface VIII., and
many other barons ; there too appeared the magistrates,
councillors, and Bannerets of Rome, all robed in silk,

1 Buffoons.

POPE AND SAINT 189

remarks the Bishop of Sinigaglia. The windows were
crowded with spectators of the higher class, showering
down comfits and such flowers as the season afforded.
Even the roofs were covered with people eager to see the
Pope ; shouts of " Viva Gregorio " mingled with the
chanting of the priests ; the senators brought him a loyal
address. " Verily I did not think to see such glory with
mine own eyes," writes the Bishop, who had modified his
first ideas as to the savagery of Italians. Under the
gate of San Paolo the keys of the city were presented to
the Pontiff, and then the train moved slowly on past the
Aventine, where rose the stronghold of the Savelli, pass-
ing the Capitol and the Campo di Marte, a desolate road
bordered by ruins and grim mediaeval fortresses, often
built of the stones of noble classic buildings. Not till
evening could the procession make its tedious way to
St Peter's, all "very hungry," as well they might be.
There the exhausted Pope prostrated himself in prayer,
and the first act of his return was safely accomplished.
It is commemorated in the bas-reliefs on his tomb in
Santa Francesca Romana, but they were only executed in
the sixteenth century.

Even on this first day a discordant note was struck.
Petrarch had written, " There is no need that the Roman
Pontiff should go to Rome with the armed hand ; his
authority will ensure his safety better than the sword,
sanctity better than armour. The arms of the priesthood
are prayers and tears, fasting, virtue, good conduct and
abstinence and charity. What need of military show has
the Father of all ? the Cross of Christ is enough ; that
and that only do devils fear and men reverence. What
need to sound the trumpet ? Alleluia suffices." Catherine
of Siena too had repeated this advice, strongly advising
absence of warlike demonstrations, as both unbefitting the
return of an apostle of peace and as implying distrust.

190 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Nevertheless Gregory was accompanied by two thousand
soldiers under Raymond de Turenne.

He could not and did not pretend to feel safe in Rome,
and his spirits fell with each day that he lived in the
ruinous city surrounded by a desolate Campagna, and full
of neglected churches. Grass grew in the cracked pave-
ments up to the very altar of St Peter ; the memories of
martyrs in the Colosseum had not prevented one of his
legates from ordering its marble to be burned to make
lime ; priceless statues had shared the same fate, and the
classic temples yet remaining were filled with rubbish and
filth. There was no order, no law, no virtue anywhere,
says an old Roman chronicle, least of all among the
clergy, the younger of whom are accused of going about
the city by night, visiting disreputable houses, and, sword
in hand, committing theft and murder and all manner
of enormities. Petrarch hardly exaggerated when he
asserted Rome to be a sink of iniquity with " Beelzebub
nel mezzo," and the " Dialogue " of Catherine supports
these accusations. Gregory had a herculean task before
him in reforming the Church, and Catherine constantly
urged him to set about it, but his timid nature made him
flinch from the danger and opposition which he foresaw,
and putting off attacking abuses among his clergy to a
more convenient day which never came, he devoted
himself to subduing temporal enemies. His policy was
on the whole a wise one ; when resisted he struck
severely, when he could, he conciliated, and he succeeded
in regaining an indefinite overlordship of Bologna, the
" pearl of the Romagna," though after the sack of Cesena
the Bolognese had vowed nevermore to have anything to
do with Pope or Cardinals, since massacres and religion
had nothing in common. He struck too a new blow at
Florence, by inducing both Bologna and Venice to cease
trading with her, as they had hitherto persisted in doing.

POPE AND SAINT 191

Florence was undaunted, but she made the mistake of
demanding impossible concessions short of which she
would not ask for peace. Other cities also held aloof,
and it was said that some of the Cardinals joined the
Florentines in stirring up trouble in Rome, with the hope
of driving Gregory back to Avignon. There were always
those beside him who pointed out how useless it had been
to come to this ungrateful city, which had called so loudly
and lamentably for a Pope, and now that he had come,
was disobedient and insolent.

And Catherine was not at hand for him to lean on.
Although both in San Domenico at Siena and in the
Sala Regia of the Vatican she is painted entering the
city with Gregory, she was not really there, but yet if
historically incorrect, it is right that her figure should
appear in a return to Rome which but for her would
hardly have taken place.

She left Genoa later than did Urban, but experienced
the same tempestuous weather, since there are allusions in
her biography to peril by shipwreck which can only be
referred to this voyage, though no date is given.

At Leghorn she was met by her old mother, and sent
the reluctant Stefano Maconi home, with letters and
directions as to various matters which he was to arrange,
while she again went to Pisa, perhaps to treat with
Gambacorta both on papal affairs and the question of
Talemone, a coast town, where there is now a dreary
little station, then a strong and important post on the
Sienese frontier. It had been seized by " the Prior of
Pisa," a Knight of St John, to whom she had written
energetically when hoping that a Crusade would be
organised, bidding him and his companions to be true
knights, not arming themselves merely with earthly, but
with spiritual mail — the allegory is carried out in a way
that appealed to the taste of that day, but now seems

192 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

grotesque rather than forcible. This Prior had done no
small harm to Siena with little or no excuse, under
pretext of righting for the Church, and among other
misdeeds had seized Talemone. Gambacorta supported
him, and at that time Catherine failed in recovering the
fortress, especially as the Pope did not assist her.

After an absence of eight months she returned to
Siena, whence she wrote to encourage Gregory, and
deprecate his displeasure with the city which then and
for some time longer was a sharer in the interdict, a
grievous matter, though it does not seem to have been
as ruinous to Sienese commerce as it was to Florentine.
" Be pleased to take back your rebellious children," she
wrote, " their malice and pride will be vanquished by
your goodness. It is no shame to stoop to raise a
repentant child, but rather glorious before God and man.
No more war, then, Holy Father, but give us peace, and
turn the war against the unbeliever. . . . As far as I can
tell, the general disposition is to accept you as a father,
especially in this poor little city, which has ever been the
loved daughter of your Holiness, though circumstances
drove her to things that have ill-pleased you. You can
draw them easily by the bait of love."

She repeated this argument at a later date, but Gregory
paid little attention to it, perhaps displeased that she had
again declined to go to Rome, finding herself sorely
wanted where she was. She found Siena as usual in
the state described by one of her earliest poets, Bindo
Bonichi, "the shoemaker turning his son into a barber,
and the barber turning his into a shoemaker, the notary
making his into a draper, and the merchant making his
a notary, one and all dissastified with their trade," added
to which feuds had broken out among the higher class
both of nobles and merchants such as required all
Catherine's authority and influence to deal with. She

POPE AND SAINT 193

found some relief from anxieties and troubles, — among
which the unholy love and then the dangerous hatred of
one of her own followers must be counted, though of this
there are given only hints, — in turning Ser Nanni's castle
of Belcaro into a convent. Money does not seem to have
been wanting for repairs and alterations, so that friends
must have come to her assistance, and thus enabled her
to found a community under strict rule where girls who
elected to take the veil might be safely placed. She had
often discussed the matter with the Abbot of St Antimo,
the faithful friend who brought her the viaticum on her
deathbed, and his advice was always valued by her.

This was a breathing time in her life, but her sky was
never long unclouded. An unexpected trouble arose in
Gregory's altered bearing towards her. The urgent
advice sent to him by her in one letter after another,
suggesting measures which he had not resolution to carry
out, yet knew to be right and necessary, depressed and
irritated him ; he felt too that he was incapable of
dealing with his inconstant Romans, who one day
acclaimed him and the next threatened him with death,
and he began to resent having been placed in this
position by Catherine, who now refused to come and
help him in his need. And he could not have forgotten
that stinging declaration of hers that a " great refusal "
might be the right course for a Pope who could not fulfil
the duties of his position.

His cold displeasure tried her sorely, as is plain from a
letter sent by her to Raimondo, then in Rome, but which
ends by a direct appeal to Gregory. Raimondo had been
summoned to the Papal Court, and had been the bearer
of letters from Catherine containing suggestions which,
as he observes with unconscious satire, would no doubt
have been very useful had they ever been carried out.
While in Rome he was elected Prior of the Dominican

194 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Convent of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, and thus could
not return to Siena, which was a deep disappointment to
Catherine. Though called to Rome by Gregory, he too
was in disfavour, and much distressed by it, as may be
gathered from her letter — one full of pain and unusually
depressed. " If you chance to find yourself in the presence
of his Holiness, commend me humbly to him, and ask his
pardon for the many faults which I have committed
through my ignorance and negligence. I fear," she
continues with that inclination to take the offences of
others on herself which Raimondo considers to be a
proof of utter humility, supporting his view by the words
of Gregory the Great, " it is the property of the good
to see sin where none is, and where it is light to hold it
as heavy " — " I fear that it is my sins which are the
cause of the persecution which he suffers, and all the woes
of the Church may justly be laid at my door. He has
therefore good reason to complain and punish me for my
faults, but tell him that I will do all I can to correct
myself and serve him better."

Further on she repeats her painful conviction that the
troubles which beset both the Pontiff and the Church
arose from her lack of virtue and many faults of dis-
obedience. Raimondo may well say, " Ingeniose imponebat
sibi offenses." But with passionate appeal she exclaims,
turning from Raimondo to address Gregory himself, " To
whom can I turn if you abandon me ? Who will help
me, to whom can I flee if you send me away ? My
persecutors pursue me, and I take refuge with you ; if
you desert me and are angry with me I can but hide
myself in the wounds of Christ crucified, whose vicar you
are, and I know that He will receive me, for He wills not
the death of a sinner. And when he has received me,
surely you will not reject me, and we shall remain at our
post, fighting for the sweet Bride of Christ It is so that

POPE AND SAINT 195

I wish to end my life, in tears and sighs, giving my blood
for her if need be, and the very marrow of my bones. If all
the world repel me, I will not torment myself, but rest
weeping and satisfied on the breast of that sweet Bride.
Most holy Father, forgive my ignorances and many
offences against God and your holiness. It is the Eternal
Truth which excuses and gives me courage while I humbly
ask your blessing."

The letter is thoroughly characteristic in its vehemence,
its humility, its conscious dignity, and we must add with
some perplexity, its mingled contrition and the extra-
ordinary sense of her own value conveyed in the self-
accusations. It is difficult to suppose that the words mean
exactly what they imply, but what then do they mean ?
Had the haunting fear of the effect of her shortcomings
which appears in earlier letters increased with failing
strength and disappointments and become altogether
morbid ? Who can say ? and who can venture to judge
one so exceptional as was Catherine Benincasa?

No doubt it was a comfort to find that even if no longer
friendly, Gregory still trusted her and depended upon her
as she presently did, though it does not appear that
Raimondo ventured to lay her appeal before him.
Florence was to him what Italians would call a long
thorn in the foot. Her ambassadors had indeed come,
but with! as little intention of making peace as those sent
to Avignon, and they were not graciously received. A
letter which the Pope sent in July 1377, and still to be
seen in the archives of Florence, is at once pathetic and
querulous, the composition of a weak and aggrieved man.
He complains that he had left a fair and fruitful native
land, a grateful people devoted to him together with very
much else, and had resisted the entreaties of kings,
princes and cardinals, going to Italy with the firm
determination that for love of peace he would make good

196 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

all wherein his legates had failed. To his profound grief
his hopes were all vain.

Although the Eight of War were as strongly opposed to
submission as before, the peace party had gained strength,
and members of the proletariat joined it, who cared nothing
for the honour of the city, and hardly understood what
the cause was for which Florence was being ruined, but
who keenly felt the privations entailed by the taxes and
the interdict. Almost as soon as Catherine returned
to Siena Soderini had come to implore her to go back
with him to Florence, and once more mediate between the
city and Gregory. She refused. Her experience of
Florentine politics did not encourage the hope that she
could be of real use, and she had much to do at Siena.

Raimondo tells how he and Soderini spoke much
together of the tortuous policy of the Eight, and the
condition of the " divided city," and his journey to Rome
promised an opportunity of laying what he had heard
before the Pope, but for several months after his arrival he
was engaged in preaching and in the duties of his office
of Prior, to which he had once before been elected.
Although he makes no mention of being allowed an
audience by Gregory, it may be supposed that he saw
him, since the Pope himself had summoned him, and his
discomfort at the coldness which he experienced implies
that he had been in his presence. In one way or another
he certaintly put before him what Soderini had said, but
with no result. It seems to have been a surprise to him
when one Sunday he heard from a papal messenger that
he was invited to dinner that day. Gregory was then
living in the Vatican, as the Lateran was uninhabitable.
Nothing appears to have been said of any interest during
the meal, but when it was over the Pope remarked, " I am
told that if Catherine of Siena went to Florence, peace
would be made." Raimondo answered, " Not only

POPE AND SAINT 197

Catherine, but we all, holy Father, are ready to serve you
and endure martyrdom if need be." Gregory replied that
he did not wish to send him, as he might meet with
rough usage, but that Catherine could safely go, being a
woman so much venerated, though at the same time he
said that he would not have any of the Mantellate accom-
pany her, a precaution which suggests that he was not so
sure of her safety as he declared himself to be. Raimondo
at all events knew there was great risk, for although
she had refused to accompany Soderini, she had sent
Maconi to see what he could do, believing that his high
rank and charm of manner would gain him a hearing, but
he had barely escaped with life from the tumult raised by
a report that Catherine of Siena had sent him to induce
the Signoria to deliver the city over to the Pope. This
was an unhappy prelude to a visit from Catherine, and it
must have been with a heavy heart that Raimondo pre-
pared the necessary papers for the Pope's signature, and
sent them to Siena. Catherine of course obeyed at once,
and set out accompanied by a few of her " college," and
her mother, who may have used the pretext of visiting the
sons and grandchildren living in Florence, since the
Mantellate were forbidden to go, and Lapa was now one
of the Order, as also was a sister of Catherine's with the
same name as her mother.

Weary of the tumult and dissatisfaction of Rome, the Pope
retired to Anagni, in spite of its unpleasing associations with
the mistakes and humiliations of a greater Pontiff than he.
Thence he launched several bulls of excommunication
against Wickliffe, and sought to detach the Tuscan cities
from the League, not without some success. The Bishop of
Sinigaglia completes his itinerary of the Papal journeys by
a description of the removal to Anagni, written in equally
bad Latin, as was the earlier part of his poem, but in a
much more contented frame of mind ; he does indeed

198 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

mention travelling through valleys dark with clouds, but
Anagni found favour in his sight, and he speaks with
complaisance of its fountains, its streets and its inhabi-
tants. Of the Pope's stay there there is no word — but
all around him saw that death was approaching to set a
most unhappy man free from a task for which he knew
himself to be incompetent. He had made mistake upon
mistake, always delaying until the time was passed for
action. His policy had gone little beyond continuing the
ruinous war with Lombardy which he had inherited from
his predecessors, and which had made him unpopular in
other countries called on to contribute to expenses in
which they had no interest. To reduce the luxury of
Avignon or make the Cardinals share in papal liabilities
had not even crossed his mind. Petrarch's had been a
voice crying in the wilderness when he denounced the
" successors of a troop of poor fishermen who had forgotten
their origin, walking in gold and purple, dwelling in splendid
palaces instead of little boats on the lake of Gennesereth,
with parchments whence hung leaden seals to catch the
poor dupes whom they put on a gridiron and a scale to
satisfy their greed, and instead of going barefoot, behold
them — satraps mounted on horses covered with gold,
champing golden bits and soon to be shod with gold,
unless Heaven should repress their insolent luxury. One
would take them for Kings of Persia or Parthia whom one
must adore and not approach empty handed." Gregory
was well acquainted with Petrarch's writings, but he had
not been impelled by them to reform the Court or the
Sacred College, though the state of the Church weighed
increasingly on his mind. He could not be unaware of
the excitement, the hopes and fears, the plots and intrigues
which were already gathering round his last days, and he
remembered the words of the Duke of Anjou sent to dis-
suade him from leaving France, " If you die yonder, which

POPE AND SAINT 199

it seems you will, according to what your physicians tell
me, the Romans, who are marvellous treacherous, will* be
masters and lords of all the Cardinals, and will make a
Pope at their will."

Who the next Pope would be Gregory could not even
surmise, but one thing was certain, the all-important
question whether he should be French or Italian, remain
in Italy or go back to Avignon, would have to be decided.
All that he could do was to promulgate a bull that who-
ever had a majority of votes, with or without a conclave,
in or out of Rome, should be held to be legally elected as
Pope, and that the votes and desires of the minority should
be held of no account. But here he reckoned without the
Romans, who foresaw the probability of the Cardinals
attempting to hold a Conclave when the time should come,
elsewhere than in the papal city, and prepared to hinder
any such attempt.

CHAPTER X

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE

" | ^ EFORE I left Tuscany," writes Raimondo, relating
~^ the conversation with Soderini already alluded to,
" I had an interview with Niccol6 Soderini, a man
most faithful to God and the Church, and greatly attached
to Catherine. He talked of the affairs of the Republic,
especially of the malice of those who feigned to desire
reconciliation with the Church, yet did all they might to
hinder peace. I complained of this line of conduct, and
that excellent man replied thus : ' Be you sure that the
people and every honest man in the city want peace ; it
is only a few obstinate men who rule us that put difficulties
in the way. I said, ' Could not a remedy be found for
this evil ? ' He answered, ' Yes, if some honourable
citizen took the cause of God to heart and had an under-
standing with the Guelfs so as to take away power from
those intermeddlers, enemies of the public good. It
would be enough to remove four or five.' " This con-
versation was repeated to Catherine, with unfortunate
result. Gregory too must have had some such declara-
tion made him, though not apparently by Raimondo, who
writes as if unprepared for his sending Catherine to Flor-
ence. The upshot was that she went, this time as the
ambassadress of the Pope.

Before she left Siena she despatched " a true and good
servant of God " in the shape of a Franciscan friar with a
letter to Soderini, to advise him as to his own affairs and

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 201

those of the city. Her choice of a messenger suggests
that he was to instil good counsel into the populace as
well as Soderini. They had all but lynched Stefano
Maconi when he came with the same intention, but the
Franciscans were popular, often of the lower class, and
well acquainted with its grievances and aims. Catherine
also wrote to the Signoria, as the Priors of the Arts were
collectively called, and then, having prepared the way as
far as she could, she obeyed the Pope's order, and arrived
in Florence early in 1378 or the end of 1377 — as usual,
no date is given. Gregory's desire that she should take
no women with her was unheeded ; besides her mother
she took Giovanna di Capo (a favoured sister, for she
accompanied her later to Rome), who shared her
danger when the mob threatened her life. Stefano
Maconi came too, though his presence did not make for
safety, as it would recall the rumours of Catherine's desire
to have Florence handed over to the Pope, and no people
are more ready to believe a rumour, however wild, than the
lower class of Italians. Moreover, one so useful to the war
party would not be suffered to die, since their existence
depended on bringing her mission to nought, whether they
were of those who prolonged the struggle out of ambition
and fear of the day of reckoning, or were more patriotic
citizens, proud that their city should head the League for
independence, and reluctant to endure the humiliation of
submitting without gaining any of the advantages for
which they had made such sacrifices.

On her previous visit Catherine had been entertained
in the palace of Soderini, but now she and her companions
were lodged in a little house at the foot of the hill called
San Giorgio, which he and some other friends had built
expressly for her use. She found the conditions of
Florence much worse than in her last visit. Although
the citizens in spite of hard times and war expenses were

202 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

bravely continuing to build the Loggia dei Priori 1 and
the Duomo, poverty and gloom pervaded the city. Italian
towns had not seldom been little the worse for papal
censures, and at the beginning of the century Florence
herself had defied an interdict successfully, refusing with
scorn the good offices of the Cardinal of Bologna, while
princes like Ezzelino and Bernabo Viscontio treated them
with contempt. She could do so no longer, now that her
widespread trade, chiefly foreign, had raised up a host
of commercial rivals, eager to push her out of the field.
It was not deference to the Church that caused their
shops and warehouses to be destroyed and the owners
driven away as soon as the interdict was pronounced.
The great banking business of the Florentines came to an
end ; no orders were now received for fine dressed cloth,
or any of the other goods for which Florence was cele-
brated : the workshops were closed, and the braccianti, a
name equivalent to " hands," were starving and sullen,
only half understanding what the war was about. Added
to this, the consciences of the religious were greatly per-
turbed at finding themselves ranged against him whom
they looked on as Christ's Vicar on earth, and by the
suspension of holy rites when no church bells called to
prayer, or to those festivals which made welcome breaks
in the monotonous toil and sordidness of daily life even
for the poorest. So strong became this feeling that the
magistrates made great efforts to oblige the clergy to
open their churches, where they celebrated mass behind
closed doors, and when the Bishop — Florence had as yet
no Archbishop — left the city, a penalty of 10,000 florins
was threatened if he would not return. He was one of
the historic family of Ricasoli ; as a " Grande " he could
neither hold the See of Fiesole nor Florence, and in order
to become eligible had renounced his " consorteria," and

1 Now Loggia dei Lanzi.

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 203

changed his coat-of-arms to those of a mitre and two
gold and silver angels, but to the people he was as much
of a Grande as ever ; they mocked at and suspected him,
and though he gained his end, they finally got rid of him,
and he was translated to Faenza. There is a letter from
Catherine encouraging him to hold out against the magis-
trates, but neither this nor others which she wrote to him
imply a high opinion of her correspondent. In one she
says twice over, " I most gently beg you to awake from
the sleep of negligence," while her letter written at the
time of his flight from Florence suggests that she thought
his chief motive for going away was care for his own
safety. She wants to see him " manly and not timid,"
" serving the sweet Bride of Christ with manliness," not
returning to his See ; she is glad of his constancy, but
once more bids him arise from the sleep of negligence.

Another letter sent from Florence soon after her arrival
shows how painful an impression the state of things there
had made on her. It is to the Cardinal of Luna, whom
she and Raimondo had known at Avignon, and in whom
she was to find herself woefully deceived. With all her
singular power of reading thoughts and characters she
was not seldom mistaken. Gregory, experienced in men
and accustomed to the intrigues and ambitions of the
ecclesiastical world from boyhood — his uncle, Clement VI.,
had created him Cardinal Deacon before he was eighteen
years old — doubted him from the first, and on making
him a Cardinal had said, " Beware lest thy moon be
eclipsed." After-events caused this play of words to be
taken as a sign that the Pope had foreseen the unscrupu-
lous ambition which led him to accept the doubtful dignity
of Anti-Pope. By the father's side a Spaniard, on the
mother's he claimed descent from Saracen kings, an origin
in which Burlamacchi sees the explanation of his stubborn
schismatic conduct. When Catherine called him a column

204 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

of the Church he had not yet had an opportunity of
showing himself in his true colours, and she looked to
him for help and sympathy.

There is a tone almost despairing in her letter. Things
are going very ill in Florence, especially among the clergy,
to say nothing of laymen, among whom there are many
bad and few good ; the monks and secular priests, and
above all the friars, whose work it is to announce the
truth, all forget it, preaching that the interdict may be
violated, and that those who attend the offices and com-
municate may do so without sin, indeed, ought to do so,
thus leading people into a schism dreadful to think of, let
alone to see. And it is the base fear of man or of human
desires to receive offerings which make them act and see
thus. The last words suggest how much poverty there
would be among those priests whose small income greatly
depended on the payment for masses and other offerings
of their flocks, as well as among the laity suffering from
the cessation of commerce. " Ah me, ah me ! " Catherine
exclaims bitterly, " I die, yet cannot die at thus seeing
those deprived of the truth who ought to give their lives
for it."

Her view of papal authority demanded passive obedi-
ence, yet surely even those who felt as she did and were
equally orthodox must have asked themselves whether
any one, be he even the head of Christendom, had a right
to ruin the public and private life of a whole city, full of
innocent people, among a few who were guilty : and yet
more, where was the excuse for inflicting a like penalty
on towns like Pisa and Genoa and Siena, which had com-
mitted no offence beyond refusing to drive out the
Florentines and allowing them to attend mass. " Such
teaching is horrible in our day, and should have been to
them," says Muratori.

This suspension of spiritual rites favoured another con-

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 205

dition of things which exceedingly troubled Catherine,
namely the increase of heresy. For a century or more
Florence had been the headquarters of the Paterini and
Fraticelli, notwithstanding the vigorous efforts of the
Dominicans to destroy them ; the former were so numerous
that the Chief Inquisitor was known among the people
as the Inquisitore dei Paterini.

The Cani-Domini had literally hunted them down,
seizing them in their houses and as they fled through the
streets, but for one who was put to death half-a-dozen
started up, and the sympathy of the people was with them,
for during the outbreak of fury against the clergy early in
the struggles with Gregory the populace had wrecked the
buildings where the Inquisition sat adjoining Sta Maria
Novella.

What the tenets of the Paterini or the Fraticelli or
those of the other numerous sects which then existed
really were is impossible to ascertain. Their writings,
when they wrote, were usually seized and destroyed,
though it is said that they might be found in a part of
the Vatican not open to readers ; they are only known
through the reports of their enemies, and few creeds or
characters could stand such a test. That there was no
clear knowledge of them outside themselves is shown by
the way in which Dante classes Farinata degli Uberti as
an " Epicurean," and therefore believing that the soul
perishes with the body, which certainly was not the view
of the Paterini, yet the lately discovered archives of the
Inquisition in Florence charge Farinata with all his
family as being of that sect. The accusation was evi-
dently a calumny, invented after his death as an excuse
for that continuous persecution of the Uberti of which his
descendant, Fazio, complains in his very dull work, the
" Dittamondo," for Farinata was buried in holy ground,
beside the old Church of Sta Reparata, and to lie in holy

206 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

ground was of course denied to a heretic. Indeed, if a
priest were undiscerning enough to take one as orthodox
and give him burial accordingly, should the mistake be
found out, he had to dig up the body with his own hands,
and the spot was considered as desecrated.

To Catherine heresy was dreadful, being schism, a
rending of the seamless coat, and she abhorred it accord-
ingly. There is no mention of her having anything to do
with the Paterini, but she had anxious consultations with
Don Giovanni delle Celle both as to the war, and the
interdict, and the teaching of the Fraticelli, against whom
she makes several discourses in public, holding them the
more dangerous that they were an exaggeration of the
early Franciscans, teaching the entire renunciation of pro-
perty in every shape, and when reminded that our Lord
and his apostles had a purse, replying, " Yes — entrusted
to Judas. Had it been for our example, it would have
been in the hands of Peter." Every sect which preached
poverty was sure of persecution, but the Fraticelli claimed
to have prophets among them, and to speak with authority
against the corruptions of the Church which made them
doubly obnoxious. Like most of the heretical sects they
were charged with leading immoral lives, and it has been
suggested, though on slender grounds, that Catherine had
the Fraticelli in her mind when she wrote to her young
niece Eugenia in the convent at Montepulciano, threaten-
ing her with such an application of the discipline, i.e.
scourge, as she would remember all her life should any
word reach her that the girl had been found talking with a
friar. Unhappily morality had sunk low enough in the
mendicant orders for such a warning to be needed even
concerning those who were not Fraticelli.

If Catherine's discourses against the errors of these
had been preserved we might know more about what their
tenets really were. Her letters were carefully copied by

ST. CATHERINE PRAYING FOR THE SOUL OF AN HERETIC

BY SOUOMA

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 207

her secretaries and friends, but no account of any speech
or discourse made in public survives. She was always
listened to with eager interest, and if no lasting effect
ensued, except on an individual here and there, this was
but natural ; it is the emotional, not the moral nature
which is roused in an Italian by a religious revival, and
the effect is rarely translated into action. The normal
condition of the Italian mind is tranquil indifference to
spiritual things. When Catherine spoke at this time she
was listened to with an interest the more eager that she had
come on an errand not fully understood by the people,
and was regarded with some doubt and suspicion, fomented
by the war party, which burst into flame a little later.
She had a most difficult task in dealing with a govern-
ment so complicated and with officers constantly changing,
so that hardly had she won them when new ones were
appointed, possibly with other views and aims, but here
as in Siena she had the great advantage of being con-
nected with no party in the Republic, and of having no
personal ends to gain. One thing she effected amid
much that disappointed her ; she induced the city to
observe the interdict. Immediately on her arrival ifi
Florence, as is related by Stefano Maconi, she went to
the Palazzo Vecchio, where sat the Priors of the Arts,
and made three speeches, and " by the grace of God, so
great was her success that though until then they had
broken the interdict and manifested much contempt for
the Holy See, after hearing the exhortations of that holy
virgin, they obeyed and observed it." Glad at heart she
wrote to Alessia dei Saracini, " The dawn is come, since
the darkness which prevailed here on account of many
mortal sins committed by saying and hearing the offices
publicly is taken away in spite of those who have hindered
this, and the interdict is observed. Thanks, thanks be to
our sweet Saviour who despises not humble prayers.

208 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Pray to the Divine Goodness that peace may be soon
made in order that God may be glorified and all this ill
be done away, and we find ourselves together to tell the
admirable things of God. . . . Cause special prayers to
be put up in the monasteries, and tell our Prioress to bid
all her daughters implore peace, and that He will show
us mercy, for I do not return until it is made."

It was further off than her hopeful spirit foresaw.
" Our Prioress " was of course the one who presided
over the Mantellate, Nera di Gano, the one to whom
Catherine sent a letter1 from the castle of Agnolo
Salimbeni, which more than hints at difficulties among
those over whom she ruled, since it bids her pay no heed
to their murmurings and ingratitude, but go on her way
without hesitation. The young Sister who a very few
years earlier had stood before her, blamed and slandered
almost to the point of expulsion, now gives counsel and
encourages her, and men and women her elders and
superiors in rank and position seek her advice, and
proudly call her " Mother."

While urging obedience to the cruel mandate of
Gregory, well aware that he would listen to no overtures
from Florence while it was defied, Catherine knew that if
orthodoxy were dumb, heresy would speak the louder,
and she encouraged the meetings where pious men and
women came together for private prayer, or to read some
holy book, as she had done among her own followers in
Siena, independent of any interdict. Processions went
through the streets singing devotional verses in Italian,
known as laudi, many of which were composed at this
time by Sacchetti, a friend of Soderini and a devout
believer in Catherine. It must be owned that some read
not unlike a love song.

There were also laudi much older than those of

1 Letter 125.

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 209

Sacchetti. From the time when those "great and
manifest miracles " were shown forth by a painting of
the Virgin in the grain market of San Michele in Orto on
July 3rd, 1292, which "the preaching friars and the friars
minor likewise through envy or some other cause would
put no faith in," as Villani records, there had been a
company of laymen who came before her picture to sing
laudi in her honour, and the unbelieving friars " fell into
much infamy." It is to this Madonna that Dante's loved
friend, Guido Cavalcanti, alludes as having the features of
his lovely lady, Primavera, in a sonnet where he repeats
the accusation against the friars who say that the worship
addressed to the painting " is idolatry, for envy that she
is not their neighbour," but he is not very much in
earnest. The devotees who came to sing hymns in
honour of the Virgin formed themselves into a company
called the Laudesi, and were celebrated for charitable
works, and they paid for the shrine and internal decora-
tions of Or San Michele when it was rebuilt in 1339,
after the earlier edifice was burned in the great faction
fight between the Cavalcanti, of whom Guido was the
most brilliant member, and their enemies, the Neri and
Donati, while the Podesta looked on and did nothing, and
all that quarter of the city was ablaze.

The respect now shown towards the interdict made it
possible that Gregory would listen if reasonable overtures
were made by Florence, and Catherine used all her
authority and influence to induce both Ghibellines and
Guelfs to be at one and make terms with him, now
meeting the heads of one party, now the other, and often
producing such an effect, at least for a time, as recalled
the involuntary exclamation of the Italian Cardinals at
Avignon, " It is not a woman who speaks, but the Holy
Spirit ! "

Still the Eight of War held out, though not openly,

o

210 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

putting every obstacle in the way, not always selfishly,
for there was a reasonable desire to check the papal
power so as to defend Florence from a repetition of such
ruin as the Interdict and the war had brought upon her.
Only after stubborn opposition would they agree to refer
the cause between Florence and the Pope to a congress
which should be held at Sarzana, where every town which
had taken arms against the Pope would send represen-
tatives. Gregory was to send the Bishop of Narbonne
and Cardinal Robert of Geneva of evil fame ; Naples was
to have two ambassadors, appearing it would seem in
right of being his ally, since she had taken no share in
the struggle against him. Genoa, Venice and Florence
had four deputies each. Though Venice too had held
aloof, her trade and that of Florence were sufficiently
connected to make the matter important to her. The
arbitrator in the Congress was the wily Bernab6 Visconti.
That Robert of Geneva, on whom all Christendom had
so lately cried shame, should have been sent by the Pope
though his hands were still red with the blood of Cesena
and Faenza, and accepted by Italy as the papal represen-
tative, argues that even such enormities as he sanctioned
made no lasting impression in that age of atrocities, and
the general acceptance of Bernabo Visconti as arbitrator
is even more startling, for all knew his life of insane
cruelty and his falseness. None of the legates who drove
their cities into furious rebellion governed half as abomin-
ably as he. But the Italians could endure much more
from one of their own race than from foreigners, and his
time was not yet come. Why this man who had stirred
up strife so carefully now appeared in the character of
peacemaker was not at once known ; later it was found
that to win over his dangerous enemy, Gregory had
promised him a large share of the fine which he
demanded from the cities which had rebelled and driven

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 211

out their legates. It was to be the business of Bernab6
to make them pay. The sum was calculated less in
proportion to their offence than to the emptiness of the
papal treasury, and even if divided among all the
delinquents, was so huge that the money could hardly
have been raised. Some progress was made ; Gregory
ratified whatever Catherine had done, and sent the
Cardinal of Amiens as his legate to treat with Florence,
and the Congress had begun its sittings when all was
thrown into confusion by the news that the Pope had
died in Rome on the night of March 27th, 1378. He
had occupied the papal throne seven years, and would
have left little mark in history had he not been the last of
the French Popes.

Before his death Gregory is reported to have alluded
bitterly to Brigitta of Sweden and Catherine, warning
those around him not to listen to visionary women : he
himself had suffered from having done so. One would
hope that these words were not carried to the ears of
Catherine.

While the Pope was thinking hard things of his am-
bassadress, she was working for him at the imminent risk
of life. Finding that the chief obstacle among the Eight
of War was one Giovanni di Dino, a man of great weight
and importance, Catherine bethought herself in an evil
moment of that power which Soderini had alluded to in
his conversation with Raimondo, and suggested that it
should be used. The Eight had indeed all but unlimited
power as to their measures and spending money, but the
Captains of the People had theirs also, more ancient and
more fully recognised. Among them was that of " ad-
monishing " any one of Ghibelline politics. Should his
conduct not satisfy them after he was warned, he could
be exiled and his property confiscated. Had Soderini still
been in office, this power might possibly have been justly

212 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

used, but Catherine must have known how often it had
served to gratify private enmities, and to propose that it
should be exercised to remove Dino and others of his
party was strangely rash. If she thought that she could
trust to the patriotism and honesty of the Guelf party
she was soon undeceived by finding that as their con-
fidence grew, they instituted a veritable proscription against
all their personal foes, using her name both as sword and
shield, and asserting that all they did was by her advice
and was approved of by her. The Florentine historian
Ammirato tells the state of the case thus : " There lived
at that time a young virgin born in Siena, so self-
restrained in her life, so set on all good works, that
down to this writer, who may be seen not to be one of
her followers, all call her ' Beata ' " = blessed. " But the
heads of the Guelf party used her name not only to
blame the war against the Church but to justify their
constant admonitions, perhaps thinking to deceive the
good and holy virgin, proclaiming in the piazza, and
churches and all public places that not so much by their
advice, but by the urgency of the blessed Catherine was
all this done." The names of Soderini, Bindo Altoviti
and Pietro Canigiani are especially mentioned as "exalting
admonition as a most excellent medium to cast down the
evil mind of those who were enemies to the Church,"
but as two of these were close friends of Catherine's, and
in her letters to them after the tide turned against them
she makes no mention at all of their having deserved
their misfortunes, it may be merely a calumny.

Becoming aware of the use made of her name Catherine
vehemently protested and made her followers protest
publicly that she neither advised nor approved of the
measures taken by the Guelf party, which had succeeded
in wresting the power from its adversaries, and admonish-
ing no less than ninety of the chief citizens, under pretext

ST. CATHERINE

BY LORENZO DI PTETRO VECCHIETTA

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 213

that they were Ghibellines. In a Latin MS. left by
Maconi, he declares, " I, Stefano Maconi, an unworthy
Carthusian, was in Florence at that time with St Catherine,
who ordered both myself and others to set forth the
scandal which would be caused by the admonitions, unless
they were forthwith stopped, but I laboured in vain."
Raimondo confirms this statement : " The holy virgin
neither did these things nor caused them to be done," he
writes in emphatic denial, " and grieved exceedingly over
them, and commanded and caused to be said to many
that they did most ill in laying hands on so many, and of
such great estate."

The treatment meted out to many who were innocent
of any offence except that they were not Guelfs began
to exasperate all Florence, and a new name came to the
front in political intrigues which henceforth played a great
part in the history of Florence, that of Salvestro dei
Medici, whom Sacchetti in one of his sonnets is pleased
to call the saviour of his country in a play of words quite
good enough for his subject, " Non gia Salvestro ma
Salvator mundi." Amid the commercial ruin of the
Florentine merchants he had contrived to remain rich, and
was at this time Gonfaloniere di Giustizia.

Notwithstanding his many opportunities of studying
the democracy, he had yet to learn how easy it is to
excite a mob, and how impossible to restrain it at will,
and, jealous of the fast rising power of the Captains of
the People, he called on the people themselves to guard
their rights, betrayed as he declared by their own side.
The popolo minuto, answering roughly to what is now
called the proletariate, though with a mixture of a better
class, and the minor arti, were ripe for mischief, especially
the weavers and wool-carders, whose wages were very low,
while the rules of their guilds were framed by and for
their masters. Their wrongs were real, but they had no

214 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

votes, and their complaints were unheeded. Besides this,
work at that time was difficult or impossible to obtain,
and the unemployed were desperate. These were the
people whom Salvestro dei Medici thought to use. He
found how true is the warning given by Machiavelli in his
History of Florence, " There is no man bold enough to
arouse a revolutionary movement in a city who can, when
he will, curb it when he would stay it, or guide it towards
that at which he aims."

The whole of Florence was in an uproar, now partially
calmed, then breaking out with new fury. Salvestro lay
low, threatening to resign his post unless he was assigned
the rents of the shops on the Ponte Vecchio, and having
obtained this concession, kept out of sight and left his
fellow-authorities to get out of the troubles which he had
aroused as best they could. Fire and bloodshed filled
the streets, some of the most violent in the crowd were
such as " went a burning more for fear than liking," not
daring to seem lukewarm in the popular cause, and
burning other people's houses in the hope of protecting
their own. One ill deed brought another. " We have
done such ill to these lords that nevermore can we trust
them," was the explanation of much that was done.
There were some of higher rank who directed the move-
ments of the crowd ; many are said to have been
Fraticelli ; and there were those who would fain have
been rid of Catherine. Soon a shout was raised, none
could say by whom, but one after another took it up,
" Down with the false traitor and hypocrite Soderini, who
thinks of nothing but building a house for his blessed
Catherine ! Down with the Canigiani ! " The con-
junction of two names of those known to be Catherine's
especial friends was ominous. Led by a certain Mannelli,
who, as he believed, had been admonished at the instance
of Ristoro Canigiani, one of the sons, the mob poured

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 215

into the narrow Via dei Bardi, where Dante's Beatrice
spent her short married life, and where Petrarch's mother,
Electra Canigiana, was probably born. They set fire to
all the houses belonging to that family, and leaving the
rest to burn or not, turned their fury on the palace of
Soderini by the Arno, which they levelled to the ground.
Next the cry was heard, " Where is Catherine ? Where
is that wicked woman ? Let us take and burn Catherine
who is the ruin of Florence ! " and there was a rush
through the city in search of her. The Eight of War
did nothing to protect her, and her own friends were in
danger of their lives. At this moment she was sheltered
by some whose name is forgotten, which is well for them
if, as is told, they sent her away in cowardly fear for
themselves. Her own few followers would not leave her,
and they went from place to place, escaping their pursuers
by almost a miracle, but finding none to protect them or
give them a refuge. At last they entered a deserted
garden ; where it was is unknown, and there Catherine
was found kneeling in prayer when a band of woolcombers
discovered her. They burst in carrying axes and pikes
and shouting her name ; one who led them had a naked
sword. " Where is Catherine ? " he shouted. She
answered, " I am Catherine : in God's name do to me
whatever He allows, but let these go." The spell of her
sweet voice and gracious presence was never stronger ;
his answer was, " Fly, I say, fly ! " "I am very well
where I am," she said, " where would you have me go ?
I am ready and willing to suffer for God and the Church,
and I wish for no better. If you are charged to kill me,
do so, but let these go in safety." The man made no
reply, but led his troop away, and Catherine stood
unharmed amid her companions, who tremblingly re-
joiced over her wonderful escape. But she only wept at
having been found unworthy to pluck the red rose of

216 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

martyrdom, words that recall the sculpture on an ancient
Christian sarcophagus in the Lateran where a Roman
soldier is about to place on the Saviour's head a crown
not of thorns but of roses.

After this she was sheltered and hidden for three days
by friends who are believed to have been Francesco
Pipino and his wife Agnese, to whom many of her letters
are addressed, but her position was so unsafe that she was
persuaded to leave the city. Soderini sent her into some
secure refuge, and then went back and lived in the little
house which he had built for her, and which, strangely
enough, had escaped the popular fury. She is generally
supposed to have gone to Vallombrosa, where lived Don
Giovanni delle Celle and many other holy men, but
Vallombrosa was then and long after very inaccessible,
and at a considerable distance from Florence. She makes
no mention of where she went in her letter to Raimondo,
and she dwells much more on her sorrow that she was not
allowed to meet martyrdom than on her danger. There
are however many ways of being a martyr, and Catherine's
endurance of pain and toil and disappointment entitles
her to count as one of that noble army. Her friends tried
to persuade her not to venture back to Florence, but she
replied, " I have been commissioned by God to stay here,
and I will not leave Florentine ground until there is peace
between the Holy Father and His children."

After a while the outbreak quieted down and she
returned to the city, where she was received with shame
and respect. The storm had passed over for a time, and
the people were astonished at their own ill-doings. Pro-
scriptions had however begun against the Guelfs ; it was
their turn for exile and confiscation. Although none
denied that when Soderini was in power he had ruled
justly and well, not only had his fine palazzo been
destroyed and sacked, but he was sent into exile. The

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 217

Canigiani fared worse ; already nearly ruined by the
burning of their houses, they were heavily fined, and
although Ristoro had been enrolled as a popolano, he
was now declared to be not merely a Grande, but a Super-
grande, and as such for his whole life ineligible to any
office in his tumultuous Republic. Another son, Barduccio,
went to Siena with Catherine, a disciple of Don Giovanni
delle Celle, who thenceforward lived with her and was one
of her secretaries. He was a very young and saintly man,
and had been acquainted with Catherine before she came
to Florence, and introduced her to his father, Pietro
Canigiani. Raimondo says that Catherine had a special
affection for him ; " I think," he writes, " that it arose from
his angelic purity, nor is it wonderful that a virgin-soul
should be dear to a virgin." After Catherine's death he
became a secular priest ; Catherine had put him under
Raimondo's especial care, and by him, " fearing that the
air of Rome was hurtful to him," he was sent to Siena,
where he died with a smile on his face a little more than
a year after her release, glad to lay down the burden of
life.

At the time when she was in such danger Catherine
did not know how soon Gregory's life would end, and was
haunted by the fear that he would return to Avignon.
She therefore minimised the risk she had run in writing
to Raimondo, lest the news of the tumult in Florence
might both increase his anger against the city and his
fears for his own safety. That every excuse for quitting
Italy would be laid before him by his court she knew too
well, and in her letter to Rome she bade Raimondo
implore him not to allow what had happened to delay
the peace, but rather hurry it on while the city was
tranquil.

Almost as she wrote came the news that Gregory was
dead, and again her hopes were brought to nought, but

218 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Catherine was of too noble and sanguine a nature to be
downcast, often and bitterly though she had been dis-
appointed. There was a time of great anxiety until it was
known that an Italian Pope had been elected, and that
there was no danger of a return to Avignon, but all the
while she continued her efforts to reconcile Florence and
the Holy See, happily unaware of what was in the near
future, writing as soon as a new Pontiff had been elected
in terms even more urgent than those in which she had
addressed the late Pope to beseech him to begin his
reign by pardoning the cities which had joined the League,
and assuring him that one and all were inclined to submit.
She could say so even of Florence, dispirited by the falling
away of Bologna, and the treacherous defection of her
Captain of the forces, Varano. To us, reading her letters
in a different age, they may seem at times monotonous, as
we find the same thought and arguments repeated ; in
this case for instance she says that justice without mercy
is injustice, and that it is the Pope's proper work as a true
shepherd to eradicate vice and plant virtue. Catherine
could not always stay to notice whether her metaphors
are mixed or not, nor do they always please modern
taste. If need be, he must be ready to lay down life for
the truth. If it appears to us that she has said this often
before, we must recollect that the letters were intended
for various correspondents, and not to be read one after
another by indifferent eyes. She ends with a passage of
characteristic good sense, warning the new Pope that it is
useless to ask for too much ; one must accept from a sick
man what he has to give, and take pity on the numerous
souls who are perishing and begging for the oil of mercy.
And this should be done even if they do not ask in
exactly the courteous way which would become them, nor
feel as heartily regretful for their misdoings as they ought
to be.

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 219

The death of Gregory not only changed the aspect of
political affairs but was accompanied by tumults and
intrigues recalling those of the Conclave at Carpentras,
after the death of Clement V., when the populace
surrounded the palace where the Sacred College had met,
burned the neighbouring houses and pounded at the
barred doors within which the Cardinals were deliberating
with shouts of " We will have a French Pope ! Italian
Cardinals, name a French Pope ! " The Conclave broke
up in terror, and pulling down part of a wall at the back
of the palace, escaped in all directions. The cry now was
" French Cardinals ! name an Italian ! "

Florence, like all Italy, was deeply interested in the
matter, the more that with a new Pope, negotiations
might be made on a better footing, but internal matters
were even more pressing. Discontent was still rife among
the lower classes, while the perennial struggle with the
Grandi always threatened law and order. Roughly speak-
ing there were always five parties in Florence, trying
each to get the upper hand. With such a dissolvent as is
suspicion always at work, such a complication of offices
and change of officers, such elements of disquiet as ex-
isted in Florence, it is wonderful how a city could exist,
much more rise to such a glorious eminence as did the
city of the lily.

All these difficulties had to be taken into account by
Catherine, and that she dealt successfully with them is a
decisive proof of her powers. In July 1378 she saw her
task accomplished ; Florence and the new pontiff were
reconciled, the interdict was raised, and she had also the
promise that Talemone should be restored. She could
write to Siena with rapture that " in spite of those who
sought to hinder, peace was made ; messengers had
arrived bearing olive branches, and she sent a twig
of one to Siena. Readers of Dante will recollect an

220 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

allusion to some such scene which he too had joyfully
beheld :

" Come a messegger che porta olivo
Tragge la gente per udir novelle,
E di calcar nessun si mostra schivo . . ." *

Catherine's work was done, and with deep thankfulness
and relief she could say, " Now therefore let us go back
to Siena."

Returned there she took up her former life of combined
meditation and active good works, passing from one to
the other without any jar, a Martha and Mary in one,
now lost in super-conscious ecstasy, now giving her mind
to politics and the reform of the Church, seeking to make
her fellow-citizens observe the interdict from which they
were not yet relieved, making foes into friends and visiting
the Spedale. Catherine's life was a continual prayer, but
no one ever insisted more strongly that prayer should not
supersede good works. When she saw danger of spiritual
selfishness she did not fear to write, " Better good works
than many psalms," " Be not satisfied with saying many
paternosters," and again, " Good and holy works are that
continual prayer which every creature endowed with
reason should make."

It was at this time that she wrote and dictated her
famous " Dialogue," or as it was at first called, " The book
of divine teaching," a more appropriate name since in it
the soul is supposed to be listening to divine teaching,
and hardly speaks at all. Her disciples had begged her
to put down the thoughts and meditations which they
heard from her lips, wherefore, says Di Gano, " this ser-
vant of Christ made a noteworthy thing in the form of a
missal. . . . She composed it all in ecstasy, abstracted
from the use of all her senses except her tongue."

1 Purg. c. ii. 11. 70-74.

ST. CATHERINE AND THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE MISERICORDIA

ItV SANO DI PIETKO

CATHERINE IN FLORENCE 221

This agrees with Raimondo's report, but he was then
in Rome, and Stefano Maconi, who took down part from
Catherine's dictation, told Caffarini that she wrote much
of it herself, and that he had collected some of her MSS.
and put them for safety in the Carthusian monastery of
Pontignano, a little way from Siena. She is also spoken
of as walking about while she dictated, and part was com-
posed in the quiet hermitage of Fra Santi.

How and where the work was written is of small im-
portance. Its value consists in its own merits and in
its having breathed new life into arid scholasticism, as is
declared by no less an authority than Cardinal Capo-
celatro in his fine life of the saint of Siena. Much is
an amplification of what has been touched on in letters,
such as the beautiful passages on prayer. The work was
originally in short chapters, but Gigli divided it into
" tractates," which treat of prayer, discretion, obedience
and perfection, and is a wonderful study of the soul's
relation to God, and we can well believe her declaration
that no man, not even her friend and confessor Raimondo,
although he was " of subtle genius and a great searcher
into the mysteries of the Divinity and of Holy Scripture,"
but only God Himself had guided her in composing it.
It belongs to the class of writings which come from the
Convent of Hilfta in Germany, and the Abbey of St
Victor in France, but the breath of practicality pervades
it which characterises Italian mysticism, distinguishing
it sharply from the works of the French and German
school. Di Gano put it into Latin, because, as he says,
those who had any learning did not care to read what
was written in the vernacular, therefore he translated it
for his own satisfaction and that of his friends, spending
several years over his version, and when he had completed
it, sending the manuscript to Maconi to correct, since he
had heard most of the original as it fell from Catherine's

222 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

lips. After this it was entrusted to a good copyist,
a man according to Petrarch far from easy to find. De
Gano had not long got it safely back when a French
Dominican bishop who had known Catherine at Avignon
came with Raimondo, then risen to be General of his
Order, to Siena, and begged it, saying that he found some
things in it better put than by any of the doctors of the
Church, and that he would preach from it in his dio-
cese and gain much fruit of souls, and De Gano had to
let it go.

CHAPTER XI

GATHERING STORMS

AFFAIRS at Rome soon began to preoccupy Catherine.
Never had there been more excitement, more hope
and fear, nor such consciousness that a great crisis
was at hand than around the dying bed of Gregory XL
Even before he expired, the chief authorities of Rome, to-
gether with many clergy and laymen, went to Santo Spirito
where had gathered the Cardinals who were then in the
city to demand an audience and press the election of a
Roman as Pontiff. The Cardinals spoke them fair, but
declared that they could only act as directed by the Holy
Spirit, and having dismissed them ill-satisfied, hastened to
convey all their most valuable possessions into the castle
of Saint Angelo, which was held by a strong garrison
under Pierre de Rostaing. As soon as the death of
Gregory was known every gate and bridge in Rome was
guarded and watched by order of the civic authorities lest
the Conclave should be held elsewhere, and such Barons
as were likely to interfere with the election of the new Pope,
such as the Orsini, were ordered to leave Rome. Deputa-
tions were again sent to put before the members of the
Sacred College how much Italy and especially Rome had
suffered from the absence of the Pontiffs, and warn them
to make a speedy choice of one who should be Roman or
at least Italian, for the temper of the people would endure
nothing else. At the same time, to assure them of pro-
tection and overawe the turbulent populace, a block of

223

224 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

marble and an axe were placed in the piazza before
St Peter's, and thrice a day proclamation was made that
any one who harmed them or any of their retinue would
be beheaded on the spot.

Of the sixteen Cardinals in Rome only four were Italian,
while eleven were French. The remaining one was a
Spaniard. Of the Italians Orsini was full young for a
Pope, and Tebaldeschi was too old ; only two possible
ones remained, and they were not Romans.

Although the Senator of Rome and the thirteen
Banderesi (Bannerets) who commanded the civic guard
from the rioni or wards of the city had promised safety
and freedom of debate, and though axe and block stood
in the middle of the piazza, it did not seem as if their
precautions were of much avail, for shouts filled the air of
" Roman or Italian we will have. Give us a Roman Pope
who will stay with us, French Cardinals, or we will make
your heads redder than your hats ! " and the electors passed
through the crowd before St Peter's on their way to the
Vatican, where no Conclave had been held for fifty-six
years, followed by a number of armed rioters, who in the
confusion caused by a tempest during which the Romans
gloomily noted that the palace had been struck by lightning,
pressed in after the Cardinals, and even after the greater
part had been expelled and the doors were supposed to
be closed for the night, between thirty and forty were
found to have remained. The Bishop of Marseilles got
rid of them by inviting them to an excellent supper, after
which they departed in good humour. In the belfry of
St Peter's the bells were clanging wildly all night, and
below a dense mass of people, townsfolk and peasants who
had flocked in from the Campagna ate and drank and
shouted till even through the barred doors and thick walls
of the Vatican the noise reached the Cardinals as they sat
in hot debate before formally opening the Conclave. Nor

GATHERING STORMS 225

was this all ; against all precedent the Banderesi insisted
on entering, and again warned them to choose a Roman
Pope. They then withdrew, and again the threatening
voices outside penetrated to the Cardinals' ears. There
is little darkness in an April night in Rome, and a less
matter suffices to keep the people all night in the streets.
" Scarce a Cardinal slept." It would have been wonderful
had they done so, even had they had less uncomfortable
" cells " than those occupied by them, little spaces curtained
off in the hall of Conclave where the next day they met,
and again could hear the roar of impatient voices outside,
and the pounding and battering on the doors, and a report
was brought that the rabble were collecting fuel to burn
them down. The need of a speedy election was evident,
but there were many opposing interests. Six of the
Cardinals were from the Limousin, and wished for a Pope
from their own province ; but four others, though also
French, formed what was known as the Gallic party,
headed by Robert of Geneva, and would not hear of this ;
Urban V., they said, and Gregory XI. were Limousins
and had brought only misfortune. Rather than have
another Pope from that province they would join the
Italian party, which consisted of the old Cardinal
Tebaldeschi and Orsini, Romans, Corsini, a Florentine,
and Simone da Borsano, a Milanese.

The debate might have lasted long had they not been
spurred on by personal fears. The Bishop of Florence
proposed Tebaldeschi as Pope, but this suggestion was
strongly opposed by the Cardinal of Limoges. " The
Cardinal of St Peter's " — Tebaldeschi — " is ineligible," he
said, " because as he is a Roman it will seem as if the
Sacred College had yielded to the clamour of the Romans ;
moreover he is aged and infirm. The Bishop of Florence
is ineligible because he comes from a city which is in
revolt against the Church. Cardinal Orsini is a Roman,

226 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and far too young. ... I propose the Archbishop of
Bari."

All agreed to this compromise, and voted for Bartolo-
meo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, except the Bishop of
Florence, and Orsini, sullen and disappointed that the
choice had not fallen on himself. At the time the choice
seemed politic. Prignano was of high character, a good
business man, and popular with the Romans, and there
was a secret hope among the Cardinals that one who
had lived at Avignon, and could compare its luxurious
safety with the squalor and chronic anarchy of Rome
must desire to return. Of course he was not present in
the Conclave, and the news of his election was sent to
him. It took him altogether by surprise. Hastily bidding
his servants hide and remove all his books and most
valuable possessions before the mob could use their
singular privilege of pillaging the house of a newly
chosen Pontiff, he obeyed the summons to the Vatican.
In the mysterious way in which news leaks out when
a Conclave is sitting, the crowd discovered that a Pope
had been elected, but mistook the name for that of
Tebaldeschi, and while one part of the throng rushed off
to sack his house, another burst the doors and pressed
in to do homage to him, with exultant cries of " We
have a Roman Pope ! " The magistrates sent out couriers
to announce the news, and the Cardinals, who were
" eating a most miserable dinner >: — probably their un-
welcome guests of the night before had consumed their
provisions — terrified at what would ensue when the
mistake was discovered, fled wherever they could, and
the poor old Cardinal of St Peter's, too gouty to move,
was left alone, nearly suffocated by the crowd pressing
on him to kiss his gouty hands and feet, and feebly
tried to explain the mistake, while Prignano concealed
himself in one of the most distant parts of the Vatican.

GATHERING STORMS 227

The uproar and jubilation was redoubled when the
cellars of the Vatican were discovered, stored with ex-
cellent Malvoisie, Greek and divers other good wines.1
There was such confusion during these two days that
accounts of what occurred differ very widely, but all
agree that when the mistake as to the new Pope was
discovered, the popular fury equalled the first rejoicing,
and was intensified by a confusion between the Arch-
bishop of Bari and a certain Giovanni who had this
name, a man who held some office in the papal household
and was greatly hated. "Not a Roman ? Death to
the traitors," was the cry, justifying the Cardinals' fears.
Some were seized and forcibly brought back to the
Vatican to choose a new Pope, but they found courage
to declare Prignano duly elected, and in the confusion
which followed, were able to disappear.

In the Vatican there remained only Cardinal Tebaldeschi,
too infirm to run away, and the Pope, who kept out of
sight until the next day, when the tumult quieted down,
the Romans being pacified at finding that, if not one of
themselves, the new Pontiff was at least an Italian, and
beginning to be eager to see the coronation. Prignano
himself — and the incident is noteworthy in the light of
what followed — refused to be treated as Pope, saying
that he felt uncertain as to the validity of his election,
until assured on this point, but five Cardinals who
had escaped to their palaces came back and solemnly
declared it to be regular, and those who had fled to
St Angelo wrote to the same effect. A little later,
reassured by the Banderesi, they ventured out, and found
Rome in the best of tempers, delighted with the prospect
of the impending ceremonies, which only the oldest had
ever seen. On Easter Sunday, April i8th 1378, all the
Legates except those who had refused to leave Avignon,

1 Muratori,

228 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and the Cardinal of Amiens, whom Gregory XI. had
despatched to Tuscany, assembled to crown the Pope
as the custom then was, seated in a chair where all
could see him, before St Peter's, after which he went in
procession to the Lateran, now made habitable. Thence-
forward he was known as Urban VI.

A greater contrast to his predecessor, the pallid, vacil-
lating, refined Gregory XL could not have been found.
Born of a Neapolitan father and a Tuscan mother, Urban
VI. was short, stoutly made and swarthy, with fiery black
eyes, unprepossessing and brusque, but the well-known
purity and austerity of his life made him in Avignon
" among the faithless only faithful found," and his
patronage of learned men, close study of canon law
and of the Bible, which he caused to be read to him
every night, suggested to Catherine, who had known
him at Avignon, a great hope that he would put a new
spirit into the Papal Court, and reform the Church. In
all its corruption that faithful souls were still found in
it was amply proved by the great missions to India,
China and Africa for which there always were eager
volunteers. Gregory and his predecessors had greatly
encouraged these missionary labours, which should never
be left out of account in estimating their merits. There
were also devout and earnest men, free from any touch
of that surface piety which Catherine scorned, all eager
to co-operate in reform. Urban had a golden opportunity,
but he threw it away. The intentions with which he
began to rule were excellent. He desired to free the
Papacy from foreign influence, especially that of France ;
to do justice between that country and England, and
reform the manners and morals of the higher ecclesiastics.
It was a great programme, but Bartolomeo Prignano was
not the man to carry it out. No Brutus ever surprised
those around him more by unexpected developments of

GATHERING STORMS 229

character. When Lodovia Gonzaga of Mantua heard of
his election he had said, " I am sure that he will rule the
Holy House of God well, and I venture to say that for
a hundred years the Church has not had a shepherd
like him, for he has no relations, is good friends with the
Queen of Naples, and is experienced in worldly matters,
and sagacious and prudent."

But there are many who do well in subordinate positions,
yet cannot bear the test of ruling others. Urban VI. was
emphatically one of these. Very soon the Prior of Gorgona
wrote ruefully to Catherine that he had seen Gambacorta
and had heard from him that the new Pope was a terrible
man and greatly frightened those who had to do with
him. If Catherine had had to rouse Gregory out of
" accidie," she now found herself obliged to implore Urban
to restrain his savage temper. " For the love of Jesus,"
she wrote, " restrain those over-quick impulses which nature
suggests to you." From first to last her letters to Urban
have a touch of uneasiness ; they are cautiously respectful
though frank ; the almost caressing tone of those to his
predecessor, the last excepted, is quite absent.

But Urban, though he took her admonitions without
offence, paid no heed to them. The very day after his
coronation he broke into reproaches as he sat in the
Consistory against the indecent luxury of the higher
clergy, not without cause, if, as is told, many had a
hundred horses in their stables and a retinue to match,
while the extravagance of delicate dishes and wine at
their banquets was notorious, and had called forth scathing
notice from Petrarch. However, it was a considerable
stretch of authority to bid them observe the rule of
Urban's own order and have but a single dish at their
meals. Besides this, the bishops were desired to live in
their dioceses and cease to be the pensioners of princes
and cities. It is said that Urban had never visited his

230 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

own diocese of Bari, but had that been the case they
would surely have met his rebuke as a French bishop did
the inquiry of Gregory XI. as to why he was absent from
his see : " Holy Father, why are you not in yours ? "
" Perjured traitors " was Urban's name for them. The
anger of all present was unconcealed ; the lame Robert of
Geneva rose and limped up to the papal throne, and
exclaimed, " To-day you have not shown the cardinals
that respect which they received from your predecessor.
I tell you that if you belittle our dignity, we will belittle
yours." That one who so lately had been merely a monk
should thus treat the Princes of the Church was intoler-
able, and the threat was no empty one, but Urban would
not be warned. Repeatedly he offended his Cardinals,
bidding one hold his tongue and not talk nonsense, telling
another that he was a fool. He actually sprang up to
strike a third, and was only prevented from doing so by
Robert of Geneva, who seized and pulled him back,
exclaiming, " Holy Father ! Holy Father ! what are
you doing ? "

" In Urban," wrote a contemporary, " was verified the
proverb, ' None is so insolent as a low man suddenly raised
to power.' " Never did a man do right in so wrong a
way, and the consciousness of good intentions blinded
him to his mistaken methods, while his view of himself as
spiritual head of all Christendom made opposition appear
to him as sacrilege. His very virtues turned against him.
That sense of justice which made him declare he would do
right by England was supposed to mean that he would
favour the latter country at the expense of France, and
this belief was confirmed by his harsh reproaches to the
Cardinal of Amiens when he came from Tuscany to do
him homage — reproaches well deserved according to
Walsingham, — for having stimulated the discords between
England and France, and diverted great sums of money

GATHERING STORMS 231

to his own use. Urban's accusations were the more
stinging from being deserved, and the haughty Frenchman
retorted, " Thou liest, Barese," thus contriving to insult the
man while avoiding direct insult to him as Pope, and so
saying he walked out of the hall. An even more dangerous
enemy was created in the Conte di Fondi, Governor of
Campania, who had lent a large sum of money to Gregory
XI. Urban not only repudiated the debt but deprived
him of his office and bestowed it on a personal enemy of
the Count's. Even more fatal was the result of his behaviour
to Otho of Brunswick, the fourth husband of Giovanna I.
of Naples. This Queen had been well pleased that a
subject of her own should be elected Pope, and sent both
ambassadors and Otho to Rome to congratulate him, but
the austere Pontiff could only look with high disfavour on
such a woman as Giovanna, feeling nothing of the fascina-
tion which had bewitched so many, and marked his opinion
of her by an impolitic discourtesy to her ambassadors and
her husband. When Otho knelt at a banquet to offer him
a cup of wine, he feigned not to see him, and left him
kneeling, until a Cardinal, distressed by his rudeness, said
aloud, " Holy Father, it is time to drink." To the
ambassadors he said that he was well aware of the evil
condition of the Court of Naples, and was determined
to amend it. Giovanna was infuriated at the offence
she had received in the persons of those who represented
her, and the friendship and support of Naples was lost
to Urban.

Even if he took good advice, he turned it to ill. When
Catherine repeated the counsel which she had vainly given
to Gregory, that he should create "a troop of good
Cardinals," it suggested to him to threaten the Sacred
College with swamping the French party with Italians, a
declaration satisfactory to the Banderesi, who had begged
for a creation of new ones, but which made Robert of

232 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Geneva, pale with anger, leave the Consistory. Secret
interviews were at once held by him with his colleagues,
and the schism which rent the Church for forty years began
to come into sight.

Difficulties thickened round Urban. Unless the castle
of St Angelo were held by a garrison faithful to the Pope,
he had no mastery over the city, and the French castellan
refused to deliver it up until he had permission to do so
from the Cardinals in Avignon. When they loyally desired
him to obey, the French ones in Rome secretly forbade
him to do so, and Sant' Angelo remained a menace to
Urban, and a warning of coming danger.

The heat and unhealthiness of Rome gave the cardinals
sufficient excuse for leaving Rome, and going to their houses
at Anagni, as they had been accustomed to do in the time
of Gregory XL There it was easy to communicate with
Naples and the Conte di Fondi, and there too went the
Archbishop of Aries, taking with him the papal tiara and
other treasures. Urban ordered him to be arrested and
summoned the Cardinals to join him at Tivoli, and they
tried to induce him to go to Anagni, where he would have
been in their power. He refused to join them and they
refused to appear at Tivoli. On this he carried out his
threat of creating an overwhelming number of Italian
Cardinals by nominating twenty-four of that nation. The
Anagni party thereupon declared him unlawfully elected,
and an apostate and anti-Christ, and proceeded to choose
another Pope, who took the name of Clement VII., and
was none other than Robert of Geneva. The choice of
such a name by one stained with the blood of Cesena roused
the mocking spirit of the Italians. Three Italian Cardinals
who had been sent to negotiate stood neuter, waiting to
see what would happen.

It had needed no gift of prophecy when Catherine
foretold the coming schism at Pisa ; all who could read

GATHERING STORMS 233

the signs of the times could foresee it, but it might have
been delayed had Urban been less unwise. He himself
believed that it was no fault of his. The Pro-notary of
the Apostolic See, Tomaso Petra, ventured to ask him
how the mistake between himself and his Cardinals had
arisen, and the Pope answered with unexpected mildness,
" Truly, my son, it is no fault of mine," and explained it
by his refusal to return to Avignon or to seize on the
possessions of the Knights of St John as a means of fill-
ing the papal treasury, a proposal which he had rejected
with disgust, declaring that he would rather die a
thousand deaths than destroy the right arm of Christen-
dom. Urban, whatever his faults, was no Clement V.
There was a third reason for the breach between this
Pope and his high dignitaries, which is given by Theodore
a Niem, his secretary, the alarm created by his deter-
mination to extirpate simony, and also, no doubt, his
rough attempts to reform their ways. " It is not what
he does, but the way he does it," was the explanation of
an ambassador when asked how Urban came to make so
many enemies.

During this time Raimondo of Capua was in Rome,
and in high favour with Urban, who declared that he
was hands and feet to him, though it appears that he was
offended with two friends of Raimondo's and Catherine's,
one of whom was Tantucci. Raimondo kept Catherine
informed of what was passing, and a passage in a letter
written to Urban only two days before the Antipope was
elected suggests that the intentions of the Cardinals were
already known. Her distress was unspeakable. The
thing that she had above all dreaded had come to pass ;
the unity of the Church was shattered. There had indeed
been earlier Antipopes, but only to disappear speedily,
disavowed by even the few who had supported them.
Now not a Louis of Bavaria, not Florence, not a Tuscan

234 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

League was defying the Pope, but his own Cardinals and
half Christendom. Henceforward the consciences of men
would be distracted by the doubt of who was truly Head
of Christendom, who really held the awful powers which
they conceived to be vested in the Vicar of Christ. And
the blindness of the Cardinals was wilful, since at the time
of Urban's election the members of the Sacred College
wrote with one accord to those at Avignon declaring that
" freely and by common consent they had elected the
Archbishop of Bari, a man eminent for his great merits,"
and had eleven days later sent letters to the Kings of
France and England and the Emperor of Germany to the
same effect. Urban's own doubts at the time furnished
another proof that all had held his election valid, since
they called forth a positive assurance from all who had
voted that there was no question on the subject. They
had shown him homage as their Head, had attended his
Consistories, and had asked many papal favours, as he
remarked with a touch of humour. Now they wrote to
all the Courts declaring that the election had taken place
under pressure of fear, — that they had expected the
Archbishop of Bari to decline an honour for which he
should have known himself unfit, and they warned all
Christian peoples to withhold allegiance " to that wicked
man, and in no way to obey the mandates, monitions, acts
or words " of him who must abdicate unless he was
prepared to incur the wrath of Heaven, Peter, Paul and
all other saints."

Christendom was split into two camps, more through
politics than religion. Spain, Savoy, Cyprus and a few
German princes sided with the Antipope ; France
wavered and tried for a time to take neither side ;
Scotland naturally took the one which England did not,
and England would have none of Clement ; the schismatic
Cardinals wrote to Archbishop Sudbury in vain ; neither

GATHERING STORMS 235

clergy nor laity could forget that Robert of Geneva was
" a man of blood," and his military genius and gracious
manners did not appeal to them. The ministers of the
boy King Richard II. drew up a list of reasons why they
held their allegiance due only to Urban, and among them
is mention of a revelation made to a holy hermit, in whom
may be recognised William Flete of Lecceto, showing him
that Urban and no other was the true Pope. And when
the other " nations " of the University of Paris accepted
Clement, the English students stubbornly refused to do
so. One voice was uplifted among the Cardinals who
had voted for Urban, to protest the validity of his election ;
from his dying bed the aged Tebaldeschi declared him to
be the true Pope, but his declaration had no effect, and of
the Italian Cardinals created in haste by Urban, several
went over to the Antipope.

Catherine, heart-broken and aghast, gathered up all
her remaining strength to fight for the unity of the
Church. She wrote fiery appeals to renegades, to the
indifferent, to princes, priests, kings, cities, a very storm
of letters recalling them to their duty, and reminding
them that the arm of the Church might be weakened but
would not break, and would emerge out of weakness
strengthened together with all who clung to it. With all
the passionate eloquence at her command she addressed
the Cardinal di Luna, who had been sent to negotiate at
Anagni, and as yet had not abandoned Urban's cause,
but who one day would himself be an Antipope —
Benedict XIII. "Ah, wretched soul of mine!" she
exclaimed, " all other things, war, dishonour, and other
tribulations would seem less than a straw or a shadow
compared to this," and she goes on to implore him to
make peace and put away this great scandal. Both the
Pope and Catherine hoped much from his mediation, and
the blow was a heavy one when it appeared that he

236 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

had played false, and had even induced the three
Cardinals who had hitherto stood neutral to go over to
Clement.

Forty years of schism lay before the Church, forty
years of mutual excommunications, fighting, utter dis-
order ; at one time there were three Popes ; often two
bishops disputed a diocese, two priests claimed the same
parish, and this not only in Italy but in Germany, France
and Spain, and the main cause of all this horrible con-
fusion and sacrilege was not even religious, but venal.
" The origin of the schism," declares Chamange in his
work on " The Destruction of the Church," " the root of all
confusion is money."

Catherine found some comfort in the very extremity
of the situation, though convinced that it must become
still worse before there was improvement. " I saw how
the Bride of Christ can give life," she wrote, " having
in herself such vital force that no one can stay her ;
I saw that she shed forth strength and light, and that
none can deprive her of it, and I saw that her fruit never
diminishes, but ever increases." Her noble faith upheld
her, though the hopes which had filled her life lay dead
around her. The few remaining years of her troubled
existence were spent in a desperate struggle to support
Urban, made more desperate by her consciousness of his
unwisdom.

Among the many striking letters written at this time
is an especially memorable one to the three Italian
Cardinals who had followed the lead of Luna. Righteous
indignation thrills in every sentence. " What shows me
that you are ungrateful, base and mercenary ? " she asks.
" The persecution which you and the others are inflicting
on that Bride " (the Church) " at a time when you should
be shields to ward off the blows of heresy," a word
which in her letters often stands for schism. " Yet you

STATUE OF ST. CATHERINE

BY NEKOCC10

GATHERING STORMS 237

know clearly that Urban is truly Pope, the supreme
Pontiff, chosen by due election, not through fear, but
truly by divine inspiration rather than your human
action. And so did you announce this, which was the
truth. Now you have turned your backs like base and
wretched knights ; you have been afraid of your own
shadow. . . . You ought to have been angels on earth,
set to free us from the fiends of hell, and fulfilling the
office of angels by bringing back the sheep into the
obedience of Holy Church, and you have taken the office
of devils. With that evil which you have in yourselves
you seek to infect us, withdrawing us from obedience to
Christ on earth, and leading us into obedience to anti-
Christ, a member of the devil, as are you also so long as
you remain in this schism. This is not the blessedness
springing from ignorance. . . . No, for you know what
the truth is ; you told it to us, not we to you. Oh, how
mad you are, for you told us the truth, and want your-
selves to accept a lie ! Now you would corrupt that
truth and make us believe the contrary, saying that you
elected Pope Urban out of fear, which is not so, and any
who says so (I speak without reverence, for you have
deprived yourselves of reverence), lies shamelessly. Any
one who chooses can see whom through fear you made
show of having elected, namely Messere di San Pietro.
. . . That the solemnity was carried out in good faith is
shown by the reverence you gave and the favours asked,
which you have used in all kinds of ways. You cannot
deny this except by lies."

The allusion to " messire di San Pietro," i.e. Cardinal
Tebaldeschi, shows that Catherine believed the report that
the Cardinals in their dread of the turbulent Romans
caused it to be believed that he was the new Pope, even
persuading him to put on papal vestments.1 Another

1 See also L. 317 to Giovanna of Naples.

238 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

story was that in answer to the clamouring voices
demanding who had been chosen Cardinal Orsini called
from a window, " Go to St Peter's and you will hear,"
and that the words were misinterpreted to mean that
Tebaldeschi had been elected, but as the crowd was
already in the piazza, of St Peter's this seems an unlikely
story.

One wonders how the Princes of the Church took
Catherine's very plain speaking, especially when she went
on to say that one reason for their defection had been
that being used to soft and pleasant dealings from those
around them, they could not endure Urban's asperity.
" Not only an actual correction, but even a harsh word
of rebuke made you lift up rebellious heads. This is
why you changed, and it clearly reveals the truth to us,
for before Christ on earth began to sting, you owned and
did him reverence, as the Vicar of Christ which he is.
But this last fruit you bear which brings forth death and
shows what manner of trees ye be, and that your tree is
planted in the earth of pride, which springs from the
self-love which robs you of the light of reason. . . .
Speaking entirely in the natural sense . . . Christ on
earth being an Italian, and you Italians, I see no cause
but self-love why affection for your country could not
move you as it did the Ultramontanes. . . . Let it not
seem hard if I pierce you with the words which love of
your salvation has made me write ; rather would I
pierce you with my living voice, did God allow. His will
be done. And yet ye rather deserve deeds than words.
I come to an end and say no more ; did I do as I would,
I should not yet pause, so full is my soul of grief and
sorrow to find such blindness in those set as a light, not
lambs who feed on the honour of God and salvation of
souls and the reform of Holy Church, but thieves who
steal the honour due to God, and take it themselves, and

GATHERING STORMS 239

as wolves they devour the sheep, wherefore I have great
bitterness. I beg of you for love of that precious blood
which was shed with such fiery love for you, refresh my
soul which seeks your salvation."

The bait held out to these three Cardinals apostrophised
in Catherine's letter l was no less than the Papacy, secretly
promised to each. Angered by the election of Clement
VII., they deserted his side, but either from shame or
fear, did not return to Urban, whose savage treatment of
those whom he suspected might well make them keep
out of reach. Catherine's letter had no effect on their
conduct, and she wrote no more to them. Some of the
most persuasive letters sent by her at this time were to
the Queen of Naples. The Antipope had been pro-
claimed in her kingdom, she had welcomed his election
with costly gifts and congratulations, as she had done
so short a time before for Urban's ; when he went to
Naples a splendid reception awaited him ; the Queen
and her husband met him and kissed his feet, and her
Chancellor Spinelli, as Catherine implies in writing to
her,2 was at her ear, full of rancour because Urban had
refused him a post which he coveted, and had insulted
him publicly. Catherine not only uses affectionate
persuasion but menaces the Queen, that unless she changes
her mode of life she will be set as a sign such as shall
make any tremble who ventures to lift up his head against
the Church. " Do not await this rod," she writes, " for
hard will you find it to kick against the pricks of Divine
justice. You will have to die, and you know not when."
— Neither Catherine nor Giovanna could have foreseen that
in three years the wretched Queen would be strangled in
one of her own castles — " Not riches, not state be it
ever so stately, nor worldly dignity, nor the barons and
people, your subjects in the body will be able to defend you
1 Letter 310. 8 Ibid.

240 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

before the Supreme Judge, nor protect you from Divine
justice. But," she adds with curious approach to what
was to happen, " sometimes God uses them as execu-
tioners, to do justice on His enemy. You have invited and
invite all your people to be rather against than for you,
they having found in you little truth, not the state of a
man with a manly heart, but of a woman with no sort of
firmness or stability, a woman thing light as a leaf in
the wind. Well do they recollect that when Urban VI.,
true Pope, was made with a great and true election and
crowned with great solemnity, you caused a great and
mighty feast to be held as the son should do when the
father is exalted, and the mother for the son. For he
was son and father to you ; father through the dignity
to which he came, son because he was your subject, that
is, belonging to your kingdom. And therein you did
well. Then you ordered all to obey his Holiness, as a
high priest. Now I see you turned, as a woman without
stability, and you will have men do the opposite. . . . Do
this no more, for the love of Christ crucified. In all
you are calling down divine justice. It grieves me. If
you be not ware of the ruin coming on you, you cannot
come out of God's hands. For justice or for mercy you
are in His hands. . . . Constrained by the Divine Good-
ness which loves you unspeakably I have written to you
with great sorrow. At another time I wrote to you of
like matters. Have patience if I weary you overmuch
with words, and if I speak boldly and irreverently. The
love I have for you makes me speak without doubt. The
ill thing which you have done causes me to depart from
due respect and to speak irreverently. Much rather
would I speak with my voice and tell you the truth thus
for your welfare and chiefly for the honour of God than
by writing, and much sooner would I act than speak to
any guilty, but guilt and occasion for it is in you yourself,

GATHERING STORMS 241

since no one, demon or created being, can force you to
commit the least sin against your will." l

After the murder of Giovanna a packet of Catherine's
letters to her were found, carefully preserved, and worn
as if much read, but at the time they produced little or
no practical effect. Her pride had been too deeply
offended by the Pope, and she was further irritated
by hearing, rightly or wrongly, that the reason of his
putting difficulties in the way of her nephew's marriage to
the heiress of Sicily was because he meant her to be given
to his own dissolute nephew, Francesco Prignano. There
was also a report that he had refused to crown Otho of
Brunswick king in right of his being her husband, because
if Charles of Durazzo came to the throne, he had promised
to give this Francesco four important Neapolitan cities.
Giovanna did not pause to weigh probabilities or give
Urban the benefit of his really lofty character, and allowed
herself to be guided by Spinelli, brimful of rancour against
Urban, and soon she had to be counted on as a very
dangerous enemy.

Catherine's efforts to influence her through some of her
ladies were equally vain, nor could she bring back the
deeply offended Conte di Fondi, who was not only alienated
for personal reasons from Urban, but was allied by
marriage to Otho of Brunswick, and had lent his palace at
Fondi to the Cardinals, who assembling there held the
Conclave in which Clement VII. was elected. To this day
the people call it " II Palazzo del Papa."

The schism had passed beyond human power to remedy,
and Catherine spoke to deaf ears, all the more that the
doubt and confusion as to where right lay was so great
that we find men like San Vincenzo Ferreri siding not
with Urban, but with Clement, and as enthusiastic on his
behalf as was Catherine on Urban's. Something might

1 Letter 317.
Q

242 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

possibly have been done had Urban's proposal to call a
General Council been listened to ; the question of his
succession might have been decided, and had it gone
against him, whatever his faults, there is every reason to
believe that he would have submitted, but the schismatic
Cardinals refused to call one, and the King of France
believed that in Robert of Geneva, of a house allied by
interest and friendship to himself, lay the hope that
Avignon would again become the seat of the Papacy.
The colossal egotism of all chiefly concerned, with the
exception of Catherine and of Urban himself, determined
that the schism should continue.

CHAPTER XII

A LAST JOURNEY

THE position of Urban was hourly growing more
alarming. His one thoroughly loyal supporter
among the Cardinals, the aged Tebaldeschi, was
dead, and his dying protestation that Urban had been
legally elected fell on deaf ears. The trustworthiness of
those whom he had himself created was doubtful, even
where they had not gone over openly to Clement. So
grievous did the state of things seem to Urban that his
secretary, a Niem, describes his bursting into tears as he
listened to the reports brought him, and adds that " he
was left alone like a sparrow on the house top."

In this perplexity and distress his thoughts turned to
Catherine of Siena, and he sent to Raimondo da Capua,
bidding him call her to Rome. When she received the
message she was ill in bed, and quite unfit for a journey.
Other reasons weighed more with her. There had been
great murmuring among the Mantellate — naturally, those
who did not go with her — on account of her frequent
absences, to a degree which could not be ignored, and
there were many outside the Sisterhood also who genuinely
disapproved. " Why does this Catherine go a-roving ? "
they said. " She is a woman ; if she would serve God,
why cannot she keep quiet ? "

The uncertain position of " recluses," in the world yet
not of it, unsheltered by a cloister, yet vowed to lead
absolutely retired and inconspicuous lives, made it needful

*43

244 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

to walk warily, the more that not a few brought discredit
on their profession, and Catherine never wantonly offended
the conscience or opinions of others, and in ordinary cases
would have entirely endorsed the usual view of a
Mantellata's life. She was well aware that the strong
must submit to barriers for the sake of the weak who
cannot dispense with them. Perhaps, too, failing health
and strength made her reluctant to enter on such a
struggle as would await her in Rome. She answered
Raimondo's letter with as near a refusal as she could
venture to make. " My Father, many in Siena and
some Mantellate think I travel too much ; they are
scandalised, and say that a religious should not always
be gadding about. I do not think that these reproaches
ought to trouble me, since I never undertook any journey
save at the command of God and His Vicar and for the
salvation of souls, but to avoid any cause of scandal, I did
not mean to leave home again. However, if the Vicar of
Christ wishes it, it must be done, only in that case kindly
send me his orders in writing, that those who complain
may see and understand that I am not taking this journey
at my own desire."

Urban sent her a written command to come, and she
obeyed. It is said that after leaving Siena, she turned
and looked long at its circling walls and towers, as if in
silent farewell. She never saw her native city again.

Which road she took after passing through Porta
Romana and traversing the valley of the Orcia is
uncertain. She may have paused at Orvieto, though
it is somewhat out of the way, for there lived Sister
Daniella, to whom she wrote many letters, in the last of
which there is a hint that she might take that road.
With the usual provoking absence of details, all that is
recorded of her journey is that she was accompanied by
numerous followers, of whom Stefano Maconi was not

A LAST JOURNEY 245

one, for he and others of her most trusted disciples had
been sent to steady the wavering allegiance to Urban of
various Italian cities, but he was soon back in Siena,
consoling himself for not being allowed by his parents to
join her in Rome by looking after her business in the
city, and writing delightful letters, now gay, now grave,
to his friends in her company. Her secretaries, Bardoccio
di Canigiani and Neri di Landoccio, went with her ; the
old hermit, Fra Santi, who loved her so dearly, had left
his quiet cell to accompany her, and Prior Giovanni III.
had left his monastery for the same purpose.

Among the women were her sister-in-law, Lisa, from
whom Raimondo derived his information as to the facts in
Catherine's life after he left Rome on a mission to France,
in less than a fortnight after her arrival, Alessia dei
Saracini, and Giovanna di Capo, who seems to have been
of a forgetful disposition, since on one occasion when it
was her turn to provide for the meal of the company,
often suddenly increased by pilgrims and visitors to
Catherine, she totally forgot to do so, so that — as we are
told — there would have been no food at all, had not
Catherine worked a miracle ! Lapa Benincasa was there,
or came later ; there appears to be some confusion
between the mother and a daughter of the same name.
When Catherine wrote to Stefano Maconi from Rome,
" Tell the Prior to do as he thinks best about Sister
Lapa ; if she should go to Siena, I commend her to you,"
she may allude to a different Lapa from either. Lapa
was a common name at that time in Siena, though now
no longer used there, and may probably have been a
feminine made from the family name of Lapo. That
Catherine meant to commend her old mother to Stefano
is not likely. He could have needed no such request ;
everyone and everything connected with his beloved
" Mother " was precious to him.

246 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

The travellers reached Rome safely in November, 1373,
more fortunate than the ambassadors sent there by Siena,
two of whom were captured by the Clementine party,
and only released on payment of a great ransom. They
took up their abode at first in a house in the rione di
Colonna, not far from the Pantheon, but soon moved to one
in Via di Papa, where now is a chapel of the Nunziatella.
It stands between the Campo di Fiori and the Dominican
Church of St Maria sopra Minerva, where a year
and four months later Catherine was to find her last
resting place. From the Pope she would accept nothing
but this shelter, and all the party lived on alms, as a
protest against the luxury of the time, alms which were
freely given, fortunately for Alessia, who superintended
the temporal concerns of the " college," and who often
found her resources severely strained, especially when at the
bidding of the Pope and Catherine numerous hermits and
ecclesiastics came to Rome, and sought the house in Via
di Papa for maintenance, never refused or grudged.
Raimondo had left Rome at this date, therefore it must
be on her authority that he reports that " the Holy Father
at Catherine's suggestion summoned to Rome very many
of the servants of God, all of whom she received because
of her great hospitality. For although she owned no lands
nor gold nor silver, and lived with all her family on daily
alms, yet was she as ready to receive and entertain a
hundred pilgrims as though they had been only one,
trusting heartily in God, and not questioning but that His
liberality would provide. The lowest number that lived
in her house was sixteen men and eight women ; at times
there were even thirty or forty. She had established such
good order in the household that each sister week by week
took it in turns to provide and dole out to the others, so
that they might give themselves to God and to pilgrimages,
and other matters which had brought them there."

A LAST JOURNEY 247

Whether Catherine was received in Rome with any of
the enthusiasm shown in Pisa and Geneva and Toulon
does not appear ; probably not, since Raimondo omits it,
and he is slow to ignore any circumstance redounding to
her honour, but there is one little mention of her which
forms a pendant to the notice of her first visit to Florence
already alluded to as existing in the Strozzi archives.
Ungaro, a Sienese sent by the authorities of the city
to Rome, to complete the tardy arrangements for the
restoration of Talemone, wrote home, " Catherine of
Monna Lapa has come here, and our Lord the Pope has
seen and spoken with her. I do not know what he said,
but only that he was much pleased to see her."

Though it was their first meeting since he had become
Pope, Urban had known her in Avignon, and was aware
of the effect which she had produced by her addresses to
the Sacred College there. Remembering this, he bade her
a few days after her arrival, come and speak to such as
were with him in Rome. She needed no interpreter, for
most if not all of them were Italians. Accordingly she
went to Santa Maria in Trastevere, where he was living,
the Vatican being dangerously near Sant' Angelo and its
French garrison. She had gone through a far more
formidable ordeal at Avignon, but with better hope than
now. No fear of the future however was allowed to
appear in her brave words, and Urban was much cheered
and impressed, though unfortunately he did not lay to
heart her exhortation to " fight only with the weapons of
repentance, prayer, virtue and love." Summing up what
she had said, he exclaimed, " How greatly unworthy are
we before God when we yield to hesitation and fear !
This donnicciula" — the shade of meaning in the half-
contemptuous, half-caressing word is untranslatable —
" this poor woman- creature confounds us. I call her a
poor woman-creature not in disdain, but to express the

248 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

natural weakness of her sex, which would make her timid
even if we ourselves were confident, yet she it is who
shows herself calm and fearless while we are fearful.
Does she not shame us all ? "

And, inspirited by what she had said, he added,
" What should Christ's Vicar fear though the whole
world were against him ? Christ omnipotent is
stronger than the world. He can never forsake the
Church."

One of Urban's most pressing anxieties was the
support which Giovanna of Naples was lending to
Clement. It seemed to him that if she could hear
the eloquent voice which had put new courage into
himself, she would be won back to his cause, and he
proposed sending Catherine to her court. The plan had
already crossed Catherine's own mind, for in writing to
the Queen she had said how thankful she should be if
she could go to her, and lay down her life if only she
could save her body and soul. Lest offence should be
given by sending one who was only sprung from the
people as an ambassadress to Naples, Urban suggested
her being accompanied by her saintly namesake, the still
very beautiful daughter of Brigitta of Sweden, who had
come back to Rome after removing her mother's body to
her native country. The two met, and the description of
their interview provokes a smile, so wide is the gulf
between Catherine of Siena with her high ideals and wide
outlook, and the high-born beauty who tells her of the
ardent lovers who had sought to carry her off by force ;
of her journey to Assisi, her hospital work, and of the
long journey back to Sweden, which after all was not
unlike a triumphal procession, so great was the honour
shown to her. She travelled under a safe conduct from
all the authorities of Rome, who requested all cities and
magistrates to permit the goods and chattels and the

A LAST JOURNEY 249

hors,es belonging to this royal lady of very great holiness
and self-denial to pass free of toll or duty. She was now
in Rome on business connected with the canonisation of
her mother, which, in spite of that schism that so long
delayed Catherine of Siena's receiving a similar honour,
took place in 1391. She spoke also, shudderingly, of a
visit to Naples which had made such an impression on
her that never could or would she return there. It was
not surprising that she should feel thus. Her brother,
Prince Charles, had also been at Giovanna's court, and the
Queen's light fancy was caught by him, so that she used
all her fascination to make him divorce his wife and
marry her. His mother looked on aghast, praying that
he might die rather than consent, and when he sickened
of a fever which proved fatal, her feeling was one of
thankfulness rather than of sorrow. His sister considered
Giovanna as the cause of his death, and declared that to
go to her court would be tempting Providence. Nothing
should make her go there.

While she spoke, Catherine of Siena had sat on the
ground, listening silently. Raimondo, watching her, saw
tears fall as the Swedish princess uttered the last words,
but still she said nothing. She had heard enough to
understand that although her namesake was a good and
holy woman, she was not of the stuff out of which
martyrs are made. Nor was Raimondo, who seized with
much relief on the chance of keeping her out of the way
of probable insult, perhaps death. She had so lately
escaped being murdered in Florence ; how would it be in
far more lawless Naples, where Giovanna was Queen ?
Himself a Neapolitan, he knew much better to what she
might be exposed than she herself could do. We may
be sure that it was not with Catherine's leave that he
reported to the Pope what had passed, and urged the
greatness of the risk, the uncertainty of any good result if

250 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Catherine went, not even safeguarded by having the
Swedish princess as her companion. Gregory had bidden
her venture into danger ; Urban was more considerate.
Disconcerted he was, but he showed none of the savage
anger which he usually displayed if thwarted, and after
sitting for some time in reflection, with his head leaning
on his hands, he said, " It is more prudent for them not
to go," and Raimondo went back at once to tell Catherine
of his decision. She was lying face downward on her
bed, worn out by the excitement and disappointment of
her interview with the Princess, but rose as he spoke with
that noble anger flashing in her eyes which her disciples
knew and feared. " If Agnes and Margaret and many
other holy women had reasoned thus, they had never
worn the crown of martyrdom," she cried. " Do you
not know that we have a Bridegroom stronger than
men, who can save us from the hands of the wicked
and preserve our honour amid a crowd of licentious
men ? All the objections of which you speak are vain,
springing from a wretched lack of faith, not true
prudence."

Raimondo stood listening, humbled and full of ad-
miration for her courage, but inwardly glad that the thing
was settled. Unable to give up hope of influencing
Giovanna, Catherine advised that Neri di Landoccio
should be sent to Naples, and wrote herself to several of
the great ladies there. The Queen was as deaf to his
arguments as she would probably have been to those
of Catherine, but he succeeded in gaining over many
Neapolitans to the side of Urban, whom they were
naturally disposed to support as their countryman, a
feeling with which Giovanna soon had to reckon.
Raimondo too was sent from Rome, reluctantly enough,
on a mission to the King of France, with credentials from
the Pope, and a letter in which Catherine said all that she

A LAST JOURNEY 251

could think of to induce him to withdraw his support
from Clement, and use his influence with the Queen of
Naples to the same end.

Raimondo's departure, so soon after her arrival, was a
severe blow to Catherine. Before he left Rome they had
long and earnest conversations together, as those who had
much to say to one another, and should meet no more.
On the day of his leaving Rome she went with him to
Ostia, where he embarked, and as he stood on the deck
of his ship he saw her kneeling on the shore in tears.
Then he could perceive that she had stretched out her
hands, and was making the sign of the Cross over the
waters. " I felt that in this world she would never bless
me again," he writes, with a heartache which still is felt in
the simple words.

As he had foreseen, they met no more, but Raimondo
did not reach the Court of France. Alarmed by warnings
that the Clementine party were determined he should not
reach the King, and aware of the horrible fate of priests
of Urban's party who had fallen into their hands,1 he lost
heart before he had got further than Ventimiglia. " Here,"
he says, " a monk of my Order, a native of that place, sent
me a letter in which he said, ' Beware of passing Venti-
miglia, for treachery is prepared, and if you fall into the
trap, no human help can avail you.' On this, after
advising with the companion given me by the
Sovereign Pontiff I went back to Genoa." He fully
believed that the difficulties and dangers in his way
justified this abandonment of his mission, a view shared
by Urban, who greatly valued the simple, honest man,
and far from showing displeasure, gave him other work
to do at Genoa.

Catherine saw it quite otherwise. She was almost
incredulous that he could have been so faint-hearted,
1 Fleury, " Eccles. Hist."

252 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and sent him a letter which filled him with compunc-
tion, telling him that his conduct showed him to be a
babe, not a man, and that if he dared not travel as a
messenger from the Pope, he might have walked as a
barefooted friar over the mountains and begged his
way.

Her attitude both to Popes and confessors is very
curious ; while profoundly reverencing their spiritual
authority she never hesitates to rebuke them as men.
Raimondo, though he may be treated as her " dear Son
and negligent Father," when he speaks as her priest
receives instant and entire obedience. Sometimes he
would exercise his authority in what seems a childish
way enough, considering with whom he was dealing,
ordering her to sit down again when she was about to
go, or in some such manner, and she instantly submitted,
fully believing that it was her duty to do so. But though
in matters of discipline he might sometimes reassure him-
self by taking a high tone, when he knew her displeased
with him, he was sorely distressed, and after receiving her
letter of reproof, he made a second attempt to reach France,
again unsuccessfully, and she had to accept his failure,
though to flinch from the chance of martyrdom seemed to
her even more cowardly now that she was in Rome than
it had done elsewhere. Dante when he visited Rome
nearly a century earlier had felt that the very stones in
her walls and the ground on which the city stood were
to be venerated, for to him she had not only Christian
associations, but imperial. Like Dante, Petrarch had
reverenced her as the centre of empire and world-rule ;
it is true that he writes about martyrs in quite the proper
way, but that was when he was urging the return of the
Popes, and thought it the right thing to say. Her classic
and imperial associations were what really appealed to him.
To Catherine Rome was sacred solely and simply because

A LAST JOURNEY

253

it was the city of St Peter and St Paul, where countless
Christians had laid down their lives for their faith. If to
her it seemed " a piece not of earth, but of heaven," she
took it from an altogether different point of view from the
Greek visitor who called it so ; its pagan and historical
associations said nothing to her. The places which she
visited were convents and churches ; we hear of her
seeking the convent of the Clarisse or Poor Clares near
San Lorenzo in Panisperma on the Viminal where she
would find Catherine of Sweden, and the Church of Santa
Croce, and the basilica of Santa Sabina, so closely connected
with Dominic and the convent of nuns whom he insisted
on making into an enclosed Order, with small consent on
their part. Whether she visited the neighbouring Church
of San Sisto is uncertain, but there is a memorial of her
in a strange old painting on a wall behind the choir in
which the Saviour is represented as drawing from His
wounded side a garment which He gives her as she kneels
at His feet dressed as a Mantellata. There is also a small
figure, supposed to represent the Prioress of San Sisto. It
must be a very early picture, for though round the head
of Catherine are rays, as in many of that date, she does
not yet wear the aureole which marks her as a canonised
saint in all paintings executed after 1460. She certainly
went to the Lateran, " Mother and Head of all Churches
in the City and in the World," and here she would find
the work of no less than three fellow-citizens ; Giovanni
di Stefano of Siena was directing the rebuilding of the
basilica ; the silver figures of S. Peter and Paul had been
ordered by Urban, and from a goldsmith called Bartolo,
also a Sienese, and the panel pictures adorning the upper
part were painted by Berno da Siena. Catherine sought
almost all the basilicae, praying at the Stations of the
Cross on their appointed days, fearless of the malaria
which haunted the almost deserted hills, where here and

254 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

there a convent stood among heaps of ruins and rubbish.
St Peter's was a constant place of pilgrimage, reached
from Via di Papa by crossing the bridges from the island
in the Tiber into Trastevere, for the one below St Angelo
had been broken down, and the garrison made sudden
sorties and " did most vehemently assault and bombard "
all the district around, reducing the houses to heaps of
bricks and fragments of wood. " They are battering all
day long," wrote the Sienese who mentions Catherine's
coming to Rome, and no one could pass near the
castle.

Rome was indeed beset with enemies within and
without. Almost at her gates were the soldiers of
Giovanni and Rinaldo Orsini, and those of the Conte di
Fondi, who was fighting in support of Clement against
his own brother whose hill town of Sermoneta he had
seized, together with Norma and Ninfa which belonged
to one of his cousins. The walls of the city were but a
poor defence, " a frail patchwork of bits of marble and
stones," and there were thirteen gates to defend. Ravag-
ing the Campagna were the savage Breton troops, whom
Gregory XI. had launched upon the unhappy Romagna,
ever wasted by wars, civil and foreign, and who were now
making war against his successor. Another enemy was
that very Duke of Anjou who, Catherine had hoped,
would head a Crusade ; now, in that irony of fortune
which pursued her, he was fighting indeed, but against
the Head of Christendom, and with a Crusade proclaimed
against himself by Urban. Clement counted upon enter-
ing Rome and being admitted into Sant' Angelo by the
French commander ; the circles of besiegers came closer
to the city, and a hurried sortie made by the Romans
only resulted in defeat. Many of the citizens were left
dead on the banks of the Anio, slaughtered by the
Bretons like sheep in the shambles, says a Niem, close to

A LAST JOURNEY 255

that bridge which was destroyed in 1 869 by the order of
Pius IX., lest Garibaldi and his band should cross it
Provisions rose to famine price, and Rome saw herself
threatened with the fate of Cesena. What she might
expect was plainly shown by what occurred when the
Bretons forced their way through one of the gates, and
rushed up to the Capitol, where at that moment most of
the Banderesi and many others of the chief citizens
happened to be gathered unarmed. They were slaughtered
in cold blood, after which the invaders retired, leaving a
scene of massacre behind which exasperated the Romans
into blind fury, and with true mob logic they fell upon
all the foreigners whom they could find, even the English
priests who to a man were loyal to Urban, and murdered
them. So intense was the hatred kindled by the wanton
brutality of the Bretons and the distress and ruin caused
by the bombardment from Sant' Angelo that a Niem
says he saw Roman women spit in the faces of the few
Frenchmen who still belonged to the Papal Court, and
no foreigner's life was safe.

Urban could see no hope except in opposing mercen-
aries by mercenaries, and with all her hatred of war
Catherine was of the same opinion, and a band of Free-
lances was gathered under Alberic di Barbiano which
took the name of the Compagnia di San Giorgio. It was
destined to become famous in the next century as a
school of military discipline and great generals. At first
they were but a handful, soon however they amounted to
four hundred men, Italians one and all. They encountered
and routed the Bretons, and Urban knighted their leader,
and gave him a banner inscribed with the words, " Italy
freed from the barbarians."

This victory was a national event and was realised as
such. For the first time Italian troops, fighting for an
Italian prince, had met and defeated a renowned band of

256 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

foreigners. At the news Italy thrilled with pride, and
consciousness awoke, never again quite to be lost, that
her many provinces made up one country. " Not English,
not Germans, but Italians have vanquished the Bretons "
was the triumphant record placed in the archives of
Florence. In Rome the victory was attributed to the
prayers of Catherine of Siena, and her popularity was
boundless.

Sant' Angelo still resisted, and it was absolutely
necessary to gain possession of it. In a fresco by
Cimabue at Assisi may be seen how massive and im-
pregnable it then was ; the walls were covered with
marble, the lower structure was square with a round tower
erected upon it, and above this again was a square one.
Underneath it were great underground ways whose use
is unknown. There was no hope of taking it by assault,
and to starve the garrison required more time than Urban
could afford. The commander might have held out, but
was discouraged by the news that the papal troops had
gained another victory at Marino, thirteen miles from
Rome, and consented to negotiate and finally to evacuate
the castle. Hardly was the last Frenchman out of it
when the Romans, as regardless of venerable associations
then as now, threw themselves furiously upon the fortress
whence they had been so long harassed, with intent utterly
to destroy it. They succeeded in tearing off its marbles
and in pulling down part of it, but its outer walls defied
their rage, though for many years vast heaps of stones
and rubbish lay around it where weeds and bushes grew
and goats clambered and browsed — a quarry for building
materials and pavements.

That the garrison consented without more delay to
yield up such a stronghold as this was greatly due to the
skilful negotiations of the Chancellor of the city, Giovanni
Cenci, a friend of de Rostaing, who commanded the

A LAST JOURNEY 257

French in Sant' Angelo, but above all a patriot. It may
be that the Romans could not forgive him this friendship,
for after the French had given up the castle he met with
such scanty gratitude that Catherine in a letter to the
Banderesi and the " Four Good Men, supporters of the
Republic of Rome," found herself obliged to write, " It
seems to me that some ingratitude is being shown to
Giovanni Cenci, who with so much solicitude, and faithful-
ness and simpleheartedness, solely to please God and for
our good — (and this I know to be the truth) — left every-
thing else to relieve you from the scourges which Castel
Sant' Angelo inflicted on you, and showed such prudence,
and now not only no thanks are given him, let alone any
sign of gratitude, but the vice of envy and ungratefulness
spits forth poison of evil sayings and much murmuring.
I would not that thus he nor any other should be treated
who may serve you, for it would be an offence to God
and for your harm, since the whole community needs
wise, mature, and discreet and conscientious men. Let
this thing be no more, for the love of Christ crucified.
Use what remedy may seem best to your Lordships, that
the foolishness of the ignorant hinder not that which is
right. This I say for your advantage, not from any
(personal) feeling, for you know I am but one passing by,
and speak for your good for you all, and he too are as my
soul. I know that as wise and discreet men you will
look on the affection and purity of heart with which I
write, and thus you will pardon my presumption in
venturing to write. I say no more. Remain in the
holy and sweet love of God. Be grateful and conscious
of what you owe to Him." l

Catherine had herself known what it was to have her
patriotism suspected at the moment when she least
deserved it, and she felt strongly for Cenci. That he

1 L- 349-

258 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

recognised her efforts both in his behalf and in that of
the Republic he was able to show unmistakably at a
later time. There is nothing to show that the Banderesi
and the Four Good Men testified any more appreciation
of his services after receiving Catherine's letter than they
had done before, except that when Urban named him as
Senator of Rome the authorities concurred in bestowing
this honour upon him, otherwise he could not have
received it, since the holder of this dignity was named
by them and merely approved by the Pope. It was a
recently created office, only dating from 1359, and the
original idea no doubt was as at first with the Captain of
the People in Siena, that it should be held by an outsider
who would be impartial, for the first Senator was not a
Roman but a Sienese. The four " Buon' uomini " were
probably supposed to be checks on the Banderesi, as the
" gentil uomini " were intended to be in one of the many
varieties in the government of Siena.

One other point should be noticed in Catherine's long
letter to the authorities of Rome, namely her anxiety
that they should treat the company of San Giorgio
properly, and care for the wounded. It looks very much
as if Rome had as little gratitude to spare for them as
for Cenci since it was necessary to write, " Also I want
you to be grateful to the company, who have been Christ's
instruments, providing that which they need, especially
the poor dear wounded. Behave charitably and peace-
ably toward them, that you may keep their assistance,
and take away those things which they have against you.
You ought to do this, most sweet brethren, both as due
to them and also because of the great need. I am sure
that if you have the virtue of gratitude in you, you
will study to do this and the other things aforesaid ; if
not, no."

To Catherine, if to no one else, the Romans were

A LAST JOURNEY 259

lastingly grateful. She had not only prayed for them
and won the deliverance of the city, as they believed, by
her supplications when hope was lowest, but had had no
small part in the negotiations for the surrender of Sant'
Angelo. Tradition says that she even went to the
Castle herself and had an interview with Rostaing. By
her advice Urban announced that there would be a
solemn thanksgiving for the success of his troops and the
safety of the city, and all the population, high and low,
poured out when he went in procession to St Peter's,
barefoot, as were the clergy who accompanied him, and
attended by all the Barons and civic authorities. Not-
withstanding all the squalor and barbarism into which
Rome fell after the Popes had deserted her, she had from
time to time had splendid processions, when the Senator
and Banderesi and Magistrates appeared in purple and
silk and gold embroidery, and the delighted Romans
crowded to see them pass, but the simplicity and gravity
of the ceremonial with which the deliverance of the city
was celebrated, if it did not dazzle the eye, touched all
hearts. Such a ceremony had not been seen in Rome
since Pope Stephen IV. had gone in procession in 769
from San Giovanni Laterano to St Peter's, and it was
recognised that the absolute simplicity of all that was
done, the absence of pomp and the touch of humiliation
were more fitting than splendour, since to gain the victory
Christian blood had been shed. Catherine wrote on this
occasion to Urban,1 " I feel cordial gladness, most holy
Father, that mine eyes have seen the will of God fulfilled
by you, namely in that humble act, very long disused, of
the holy procession," and a later passage shows that
thanks to the recovery of Sant' Angelo, the Pope had
returned to "his own place," in other words, to the
Vatican.

'L. 351-

260 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

A letter of Catherine's "written in abstraction," and
addressed to the leaders of the Company of St Giorgio,
is included in Tommaseo's collection, but its authenticity
is doubtful.1 Maimbourg, the historian of the Schism,
notes how unlike is its tone to that of her other letters,
and remarks that she would hardly when in ecstasy have
dictated passages " full of abuse." This is a little too
strong, but again, Catherine who knew well what the
plundering of Freelances meant could hardly have
suggested booty as a reward to be looked forward to.
Nor is the style of diction quite hers, and in spite of the
great authority of Tommaseo we may venture, and gladly,
to exclude this letter from the number of those certainly
written by Catherine.

The victory of the papal troops at Marino had not
only the effect of relieving Rome from fear of the Bretons,
but caused Clement to escape in haste to Gaeta, pursued
by the Company of St George. Thence he fled to
Naples, whose Queen welcomed him to the beautiful
castle which Froissart declares to have been raised by
magic in a single night. Giovanna had received him
with open arms, but not so the Neapolitans, who shouted
" Long live Pope Urban ! " and raised such a tumult that
he hurried on board ship, and sailed for Avignon, where
he could feel safe. The Avignese did not trouble them-
selves as to the validity of his claims, and he tried to
recover his shaken prestige in the eyes of the world by
riding into the town in state, wearing the tiara which the
Archbishop of Aries had carried off from Rome. On
hearing of his arrival the Cardinals in Avignon at once
recognised him as Pope, and the King of France rejoiced
greatly. " Now I am Pope ! " he is said to have
exclaimed triumphantly on hearing that Clement had
touched Provencal ground.

'L.347.

A LAST JOURNEY 261

There was no longer any hope of inducing Charles V.
to support Urban. Catherine had done her best, " writing
very pressing letters to bring him back to that Pope.
But that illustrious Catherine, carried away no doubt by
her somewhat violent zeal, treated Clement and his
Cardinals as incarnate demons, and gave them other
names almost equally strong, so that it made no impres-
sion on the mind of the King, for he did not care to
prefer above the opinion of the most learned men in the
kingdom the advice of a nun, who, though many may
believe that she was a saint, even before her canonisation,
yet wrote in a somewhat embittered style to persuade so
moderate a Prince. Once for all, every action of a saint
is not a consequence nor a mark of saintliness. Certainly
St Vincent Ferriere and other great and holy personages
did far otherwise."

This is the view of Maimbourg, who takes the side of
the Antipope, but though blaming Catherine for over
vehemence in her letters, he always speaks of her with
great esteem, writing of her elsewhere as " this admirable
maiden, who joined to eminent holiness a rare mind, and
a courage much above that which is usual in her sex,"
and altogether shows an appreciation of her not generally
found among French or German historians who support
the schismatic Popes.

" The learned men " of whose opinion Charles V.
thought so much were those who composed the University
of Paris. Although such a body could have no right to
assume the authority belonging only to a General Council,
he had turned to them for a decision as to whether Urban
or Clement were lawful Pope. They hesitated, waiting
on events, then replied, excusing themselves for the delay
by observing that Mary Magdalen had done less for the
good of the Church, by believing at once in the Resurrec-
tion, than had Thomas by long doubting, since through

262

SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

this doubt that great truth had been more clearly shown.
Finally they announced that the University adhered and
would adhere to Clement VII. as the true Sovereign
Pontiff, and Shepherd of the Universal Church, thus
" marvellously strengthening " the Clementines.

CHAPTER XIII

LAST DAYS IN ROME

LEMENT'S audacious scheme of making what he
y. intended to call the Adriatic Kingdom out of the
Romagna and Umbria, together with the towns of
Ferrara, Spoleto and Perugia, had failed, greatly through
the influence which Catherine had exerted. For the
moment Urban had the upper hand, and though his
treasury was scantily filled, he had more to give and to
spend than his rival, too often obtained by means which
when first elected he would have been the first to con-
demn. Now he practically argued that necessity has no
law. Some of those who had gone over to Clement now
came back, finding that he could not maintain them, and
hoping to regain property confiscated by Urban when
they deserted him. Others contrived to have a foot in
either camp, and got offices and benefices from both Pope
and Antipope, and many bought them to keep or sell
again. Although this was rank simony, both Clement,
who was indifferent to the sin, and Urban, who had begun
by prohibiting every kind under pain of excommunication,
making such fierce war on it as was one of the chief
causes of the Cardinals turning against him, alike profited
by it,1 and all the Church became a scene of monstrous
scandals and disorders.

With what pain Catherine looked on can only be
faintly imagined. The Popes had returned to Rome,

1 Fleury, Eccles. Hist.

264 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and this was the outcome ! The Prince who should have
led a holy war was in arms to support a schismatic
Pontiff! The Papal Court was a scene of buying and
selling holy things ! In this crisis she suggested to
Urban that he should call a number of holy men to
Rome, not of course supposing that their advice could be
of much use, but, as her letters show, with the hope of
inspiring a more unworldly and religious spirit into the
Papal Court. The proposal seemed good to Urban, who
sent forth a brief to that effect. The choice of those
bidden to come was evidently left more or less to
Catherine, for most of the names are those of men whom
she knew and trusted, such as the Prior of Gorgona,
Don Giovanni delle Celle, William Flete, and that Brother
Antonio of Nice with whom, as an early letter of
Catherine's betrays, he did not always find it easy to live
in harmony. She enforced the brief by letter to these
and many others ; some came and some refused, and
among the latter were the two hermits of Lecceto.
Equally surprised and disappointed, she wrote again,
bidding them leave their solitude, and hasten to the battle-
field. If they wanted woods, they would find plenty,
she observed with that touch of irony which lends
individuality to her letters. As the one addressed to
them both did not produce the desired effect, she sent
another especially intended for Fra Antonio, reminding
him that the Saint whose name he bore had assuredly
loved solitude as much as he could do, yet left it in order
to strengthen those who were weak in faith. Catherine
had every right to speak thus ; her own ardent desire
had been for a secluded life of contemplation. She had
sacrificed this longing at the call of duty. " She begged
of our Lord to grant her solitude," says Flete, " and He
replied, ' Many live in a cell who abide outside it, but I
will that thy cell shall be the knowledge of thyself and

LAST DAYS IN ROME 265

thy sins' and from this cell she never departed." She
disposes summarily of Fra William's defence that a
couple of godly men had received a revelation to the
effect that the plan of calling hermits to Rome was only
a human counsel and no ways from heaven, nay, that the
Pope and his advisers had been deceived by the Evil One,
who desired to withdraw such pious men from a holy and
retired life, and sought to hinder prayer and meditation.
" Lightly anchored indeed must be the soul," Catherine
retorts, " which by change of place loses its hold upon
heavenly things. Truly it would seem that God accepts
places, and is only found in the forest and not elsewhere
in time of need ! What then shall we say if on the one
hand we want the Church of God reformed, and thorns
taken away, and the sweet flowers of the servants of God
set therein, and on the other we say that to send for them
and withdraw them from quiet and peace of mind in order
that they may come and help to steer this vessel is a
deceit from the devil ? . . . Not thus have done Frate
Andrea da Lucca, nor Frate Paolino, such great servants
of God, old and infirm, who have lived so long in peace,
yet at once, for all their weariness and discomfort, they
set out and came and have accomplished their obedience,
and although torn with longing to go back to their cells,
they nevertheless will not shake off the yoke, but say,
' That which I have said, let it be as not said,' stifling
their will and their own consolations. Whoever comes
not to gain advancements, but for the dignity of much
toil, with tears, watching and continual prayers should do
thus. Now let us burden you with no more words. May
God in His mercy make all clear, and guide us in the
way of truth, and give us true and perfect light that we
may never walk in darkness. I beg you and the Bacceliere
and the other servants of God to pray to the meek Lamb
to make us go in His way."

266 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

She often alludes to Flete as the " Bacceliere," a title
found among religious Orders as a degree lower than that
of Doctor. In a manuscript kept in the Spedale of Siena
he is called " a man of great penitence," and elsewhere he
is described as spending his days in the wood with a book,
returning at night to his monastery, and Catherine had
occasion to reprove him for this habit of absenting himself
and paying little attention to the wishes of his Prior,
who wanted him to say Mass in the Church of his
monastery, instead of in some one of the caves turned
into chapels, as he loved to do. He had a passion for
solitude, and did not love the society of Fra Antonio at
all. " One must listen to other people's troubles and have
compassion on those who are bound to us by the bonds
of charity ; it is a great fault if you do not do this. For
example, I would have you show compassion for those of
Fra Antonio and for his difficulties, and not refuse to
listen to him," Catherine admonishes him, " I beg you to do
this for Christ's sake and mine," and she adds a wholesome
warning against over-austerities, and hard judgment of
those whose rule of life was different from his own. Flete
had studied at Cambridge, and had seen the world. It is
to be feared that he found his harmless fellow-hermit
insufferably tedious. But in one thing both were heartily
in sympathy, namely in deep reverence and affection for
Catherine.

His refusal to go to Rome was no small vexation to
her. Too much annoyed to write directly to him, she sent
a letter to Fra Antonio. "It appears from the letter
which Fra William has sent me that neither he nor you
mean to come. To which letter I do not mean to reply,
but much am I grieved at his simpleness, since the out-
come is small honour to God, or edification to one's
neighbour." Toward the end of this epistle it seems as
if her heart smote her for her severity, and she names

LAST DAYS IN ROME 267

Flete among those whose prayers she expressly desires,
and that she altogether forgave him is shown by her
having sent him a message from her death-bed, showing
entire trust in him, though her call to Rome had only
made him hide himself deeper in his forests, declining
altogether to follow the example held up to him of
Andrea and Paolino.

Fra Antonio was less stubborn ; he could not resist
Catherine's appeal and rebukes, and he not only went to
Rome, but remained there until his death in 1392,
" having suffered much for the Church, and obtaining the
title of Beato." If Don Giovanni delle Celle came, it was
but for a short time ; he was in Vallombrosa at the time
of Catherine's death.

When those who responded to Catherine's summons
arrived, many of them old and feeble, having gone through
the difficulties and dangers of a journey through districts
where civil war had just been raging, and all astray in a
city, they naturally gravitated to the house in Via di Papa,
and Catherine as naturally undertook to support them.
The duties of Alessia dei Saracini as head of such a
household could not have been easy in those days,
especially if she had helpers as inefficient as Giovanna di
Capo. Whether their presence in Rome had the desired
effect cannot be discovered. Public affairs again came to
the front, and a serious danger appeared in the shape of
Francesco di Vico who held a high post in the govern-
ment of Rome, but was living in Viterbo, whence he
raided all the country round. Viterbo had been a papal
stronghold, and Urban was determined to recover it, the
more that di Vico had been a thorn in the side of Gre-
gory XL, who had vainly tried to gain his friendship
by mildness. Urban resolved to use stronger measures, as
usual without much consideration as to whether the
moment were propitious or not. The letter which

268 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Catherine wrote to him on the subject has some historical
importance, as showing that Rome was a self-governing
republic, and independent in political matters of her
Popes, who only much later claimed a right to interfere
with the government of the city. The Romans had sent
ambassadors to Viterbo on their own account, probably
to remonstrate with Vico on the manner in which his
men-at-arms were ravaging the surrounding country, and
he had given a reply " wrathful and irreverent." This
Urban knew, but it was only through Catherine that he
learned the intention of the magistracy to call a Council
to deal with the affair, after which the Banderesi and the
" Good men " were to seek him and inform him of what
had been decided, he being embroiled with di Vico on his
own account. Catherine strongly advises him to continue
his habit of often meeting the authorities of the city,
and implores him to receive them mildly, whatever
they may say, and to explain whatever he considered
necessary.

An anxious and propitiatory sentence follows this
counsel, " Pardon me, for perhaps affection makes me say
what may be should not be said, but I know you ought
to be aware of the temper of your Romans, and that they
can be drawn and bound much more by love than by any
other means, or than by sharpness of words, and you
know too the great need both for yourself and the Church
to keep this people obedient and reverent, since here is
the beginning and end of our faith. And I humbly beg
of you to be prudent in only promising that which you
can fully perform " — Urban had need of the warning, for
he is reported to have been " a great promiser " — " that
there may not come shame and confusion. And pardon
me, most gentle and holy Father that I say these words.
I trust that your humility and benignity will be content
that they be said, not disgusted and contemptuous because

LAST DAYS IN ROME 269

they come from the mouth of a most lowly woman"1
(vilissima femina).

The difference of tone between this uneasy fear of how
her words may be taken, and the frankness with which
she said much harder things to Gregory XI., high in
favour though she was with Urban, tells its own tale. Yet
she still could consider him, with all his mistakes, and
violent, Neapolitan temper, as " a just and virtuous and
godfearing man, with such holy and honest intentions as
for long time the Church has not had, "and this conviction,
which was of course independent of her reverence for him
as Pope, strengthened her to do battle for him to the last,
and to stay away from Siena, though its affairs at this
time were heavy on her heart She knew that even her
own followers felt the ill effect of her absence ; some were
growing lukewarm ; there were troubles relating to Messer
Matteo and the Spedale, and difficulties had risen between
the city and the Pope, as appears from a letter of hers to
Urban. Who the " Leone " of whom she speaks may
have been is unknown ; Tommaseo takes him to be one
of the two knights captured by the Clementines when
sent from Siena to the Pope, who later succeeded in
coming to Rome. " I pray you," she writes, " that you
will see to remedy that whereof Leone spoke to you, for
the scandal grows daily, not only on account of that
which was done to the Sienese Ambassador, but for other
things constantly seen, which are such as to provoke to
wrath the weak hearts of men. This (line of conduct)
you do not need now ; you want some one who will be
an instrument of peace, not war." The want of names
makes the next sentence obscure : " Even supposing
that he acts thus out of honest zeal for justice, there are
many who do it with such disorder and hot anger that
they pass the bounds of rule and reason, and therefore I

1 L. 370.

2;o SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

urgently pray your Holiness to condescend to the
infirmities of men, and find a physician who may better
cure sickness. Do not wait until death comes ; if some
remedy be not found for the ill, it will increase. Also,
recollect the ruin which came on all Italy from not seeing
to the civil governors who ruled her so that by their
means the Church of God was despoiled. This I know
that you are aware of. Let your Holiness see what
should be done. Take compassion, take sweet com-
passion, for God does not despise your desire, nor the
prayers of His servants."

The clue of this letter is lost, but it is too character-
istic of Catherine's attitude towards Urban VI. to be passed
over. Those who are alluded to as instruments of war
are believed to mean a certain Santa Severina and the
Conte di Nola, men of war who had the Pope's ear.
Another letter written about this time was addressed to
Louis, King of Hungary. Since the King of France
could not be counted on, Urban had if possible to find
some prince whose weight and loyalty might counter-
balance this formidable defection. The only one in the
least able to do so was Louis, brother of Queen Giovanna's
first husband, whom she had caused to be murdered, and
who therefore was her bitter enemy. He had distinguished
himself in fighting against the infidels, and was known as
" the Standardbearer of the Faith." At this moment he was
at war with Venice, and Catherine uses all her arguments
to induce him to make peace with her, and come to
Urban's assistance, and be deaf to those who assured him
that Clement was the true Pope. Will he allow Antichrist
and a woman (Giovanna) to bring ruin and great darkness
on the faith ? — Much good would come of his arrival in
Italy. Perhaps it might even be the saving of Giovanna,
" questa poverella di Reina," as Catherine calls her, with
lingering tenderness, by making her see the consequences

LAST DAYS IN ROME 271

of persisting in her obstinacy. So far Urban has not
excommunicated her, hoping that she might repent.1
The hope did more credit to Catherine's heart than to
her head.

Domestic troubles were soon to occupy her painfully.
" The old serpent, finding that he could not succeed in
one way, tried another yet more dangerous," writes
Raimondo ; " what he could not bring about through the
schismatics, he thought to cause through such as had so
far been loyal to the Holy See, sowing divisions between
the Romans and the Sovereign Pontiff, and things rose to
such a height that they openly threatened to put him to
death." There was no need to call in the old serpent as
a factor in the dissatisfaction which showed itself in
Rome ; the schismatic Cardinals and those Roman Barons
who were more or less openly favourers of Clement had
abundant means of stirring up disloyalty. The novelty
of having a Pope in Rome soon wore off; the return
from Avignon had brought instead of the expected wealth
and splendour, war and ruin ; great part of the city had
been destroyed and many lives lost. Urban had little
money to spare for Rome, and his character was not one
to win popularity. When in adversity he was humble
and eager to gain the hearts of those about him, but with
the first gleam of prosperity, the old overbearing, violent
temper reappeared. When he least expected it a furious
tumult broke out in the city ; Catherine, kneeling in an
agony of prayer, could hear the tramp of the armed mob
marching by and shouting ' To the Vatican ! ' just as they
had at an earlier time called, ' Give us a Roman Pope ! ' '

Forcing the great doors of the Vatican open, they
rushed in, brandishing pikes and swords, and seeking for
Urban. Want of courage was never a fault of this Pope.
They found him seated on his throne, wearing his ponti-

'L. 357.

272 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

fical robes and mitre. " Whom seek ye ? " he asked,
facing them as fearlessly as Boniface VIII. had faced the
Colonna at Anagni, and with a better result. The
Roman populace had neither wrongs to avenge like those
of the Colonna, nor hereditary courage ; they paused,
alarmed and abashed by the awful indignation in Urban's
countenance, and slunk away. Catherine is said to have
hurried to the piazza, of St Peter's to remonstrate with
the crowd ; every one there knew at least by sight that frail
figure now so emaciated that " they who saw her would
have taken her for a phantom rather than a living being ; "
they had watched her going daily to Mass at St Peter's ;
that pale face was a familiar sight in the prisons, and had
bent over many sick beds ; she had prayed for them and
won victory by her prayers. All listened to her voice,
and by her means peace was made between the incensed
Pontiff and his rebellious Romans. It was her last great
public act ; the schism and the hopeless effort to check
Urban's violence and want of judgment were killing her,
and it was with literal truth that she said to Fra
Bartolomeo Domenico, as he bade her a last farewell,
" Be assured that if I die, the sole cause of my death is
the zeal which burns and consumes me for Holy Church."
Yet she did not relax her efforts for unity and peace.
Almost daily she was consulted by the Banderesi, some-
times dragging herself to the Capitol to meet them ; even
the Captains of Urban's troops came when in Rome to
ask her advice ; the Pope showed her such absolute
confidence as his predecessor had never done, and thanks
to her good offices with King Louis of Hungary, Venice
had peace. Every voice praised her, and all eyes turned
reverently to follow her, as she went to Mass at St Peter's,
going there fortified by the joy of expecting to com-
municate with steps so light that those who knew her
real condition were filled with wonder, and remaining

A PAGE FROM ST. CATH RHINE'S MISSAL

LAST DAYS IN ROME 273

several hours in prayer, but too often returning so ex-
hausted that she could only drop prone on a bed which
her friends feared she would never again leave. Yet
when a new dawn broke, her wonderful vitality, both
spiritual and physical, enabled her to rise and face the
heavy work which each day brought.

Still, it was evident to those about her that each day
lessened it, and dark spiritual experiences began to
agonise her, which, as in the case of the Dominican
mystic, Suso, appeared to her to be the work of some evil
power outside her, and, as Raimondo knew from Alessia
dei Saracini or Catherine's letters, she thought that she
saw all the city full of fiends exciting the inhabitants to
murder Urban, and threatening herself with a dreadful
death, a vision easily understood when we recollect the
terror and horror which the late revolt had caused her.

Even her prayers only brought her distress, for she
thought that they only caused Christ to answer, " Leave
this people alone who blaspheme My name daily ; when
they have committed this crime I will destroy them in
My wrath, for My justice will no longer endure their sins
and guilt." She only prayed the more fervently, pleading,
"If this great misfortune happen, not only the Romans,
but all the faithful will suffer greatly. Be appeased,
Lord, despise not Thy people for whom Thou hast paid
such a ransom."

Long was it before she could feel that there was an answer
to her prayers. " God opposed His justice to them," writes
Raimondo. The whole account vividly recalls a scene in
a mediaeval French poem, of which there are traces in
Dante's " Inferno," called St Pol le Ber, otherwise St
Paul the Baron, this being a kind of honourable title,
found in the " Divina Commedia " and elsewhere. The
writer describes how St Paul was led through hell by an
angel, and saw all the agonies which mediaeval writers
s

274 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

describe with ruthless and sickening detail, as men to
whom torture was a familiar thing. In the last scene the
lost souls implore a little truce to their anguish, on which
Christ appears, and with exactly the air and tone of a
deeply offended seigneur addressing rebellious vassals,
demands how they who had despised and thwarted him
on earth had the audacity to ask a favour from Him ?
Yet, for the sake of His good Apostle and the Angels
who have mediated for them, some alleviation they shall
have.

No wonder that those before whom the Redeemer was
held in such a light should regard Him chiefly as a
relentless Judge, who must be propitiated by the Virgin
and the Saints ! — Catherine, in her natural mood, was
indeed incapable of looking thus on Him whom she
adored and trusted with all her heart ; it is a remarkable
feature of her teaching, so far as it is known to us, that
she rarely used fear as a motive for rousing men from
their sins. Most of the sermons of mediaeval writers are
full of awful descriptions of the fate awaiting sinners, and
their purgatory can hardly be distinguished from hell.
Catherine lived and taught love. To her it was the great
motive power, so great that it made lover and loved one.
Her doctrine was that nothing can be effected without
love, since all the powers of the soul are moved by it ;
every virtue receives life from it, nor without it can the
soul live. Such also was the teaching of Dante a century
earlier.

She found some relief in writing to Raimondo, and tell-
ing him her troubled thoughts and experiences, describing
how she had fallen into convulsions while in the chapel
of her house, and was helped back to her own room with
great difficulty, but there unspeakable horror crushed her,
and she had a strange conviction that her soul stood apart
from her body which seemed dead, and that she had

LAST DAYS IN ROME 275

longed to comfort Barduccio Canigiani, who stood watch-
ing her in great distress, but she could neither speak nor
move, though she could and did pray passionately and for
a moment felt comforted, and those kneeling round the
beloved form which they thought dead saw her breathe
again. But for two days and nights the dreadful mental
conflict continued, and though she regained strength
enough to creep to St Peter's, she never recovered its
effects, and wrote a letter of farewell to Raimondo, the
Confessor whom she loved and respected so greatly,
though sometimes he disappointed, and sometimes he mis-
understood her. She commended her spiritual family to
him, bidding him guard against their finding themselves
like sheep without a shepherd ; she bids him collect the
MSS. of her " Dialogue " and other writings, and do with
them whatever he thinks best, and, in the pathetic way in
which the dying sometimes unconsciously wring the hearts
of those whom they are leaving, begs him to forgive all
disobedience and ingratitude of which she has been guilty,
and all pain and distress which she has caused him,
and to forgive also that she had not cared better for his
health.

At such a time her letters could be but few, but as long
as she could do so she occupied herself with Urban's
affairs and those of Siena. Soon after the victory of
Marino she had appealed to her native city for men and
money, reminding the magistrates that they owed him
much gratitude for having removed the interdict laid on it
because it persisted in keeping up friendly relations with
Florence, and had sent soldiers to the aid of Bologna and
Perugia when they joined the Tuscan League. As in
Florence, the interdict had greatly troubled all religious
men. Stefano Maconi had written to tell her how some
of the citizens had caused themselves to be enrolled as
part of the household of the Bishop of Narni, then in

276 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Siena, as his retinue had the privilege of hearing Mass ;
Stefano himself had done so. To Catherine's straight-
forward mind there seemed to be a dishonest quibble in
this method of evading the interdict. She told him that
she would not have allowed any of her followers to do so
if she had been in Siena, and Stefano would do better to
wait patiently until the prohibition was removed. Still, if
the Bishop was clear that the thing was right, it might
be allowable. The permission is hesitatingly given ;
Catherine cannot convince herself that all is right in this
evasion of the papal interdict, but she will not question
the authority of the Bishop, and she takes refuge in
supposing that he may have exceptional powers and can
give special leave, in which case there is no more to be
said. Stefano was quite ready to submit to her judgment
in cases of conscience, and attend Mass or not in the
Bishop's chapel as she thought right, but he could not
altogether accept her point of view with regard to the city
and Urban, nor could the Magistrates, to whom she wrote
on the subject.

Already the city had paid a heavy sum to recover
Talemone, which after all was rightly theirs, and her
reminder to be grateful to the Pope fell flat. As usual,
she saw the matter from a religious point of view only.
Stefano was a citizen as well as her disciple, and in a
letter addressed to his friend Neri di Landoccio, but
meant for her eye, he recalled what a strain there was on
the resources of Siena at that moment. As far as he
could say the Sienese were loyal to Urban except perhaps
a few who were looked on as thieves, but as to men and
money, the Freelances exacted blackmail monthly to the
amount of six thousand golden florins, and had just raised
their terms to fifteen hundred more, and even so could
not be held from raiding the surrounding country.
Something should certainly be sent ; he had argued the

LAST DAYS IN ROME 277

matter with the Signoria often, and with outsiders also ;
something must be done, even if the property of the city
were pledged for it. Then, in his more usual tone of
banter he complains that his grave correspondent in
Rome, Fra Tomaso, sends him no news except what he
already knows. If he only had time he could tell them
all something which had made even Messer Matteo, the
Rector of the Spedale, split with laughter. Unluckily he
had not time, and we are not allowed to know what
this good joke was. Messer Matteo chanced to come in
while Stefano was writing in the room lent him at the
Misericordia, and took the opportunity to send a message
to " our Mother," explaining that he had so many letters
to write that he could get through no more, but begged
her and Neri and all the rest to remember him in prayer.
And with an exhortation to his friend either to write
himself or to make Barduccio Canigiani or Cecca do so,
Stefano concludes by signing himself Neri's useless and
unworthy brother, poor in all virtues, epithets often found
as a heading in Catherine's letters to him, added doubtless
by himself when he copied them in a more earnest spirit
than when he used them in writing to his friend.

Featherheaded as his serious friends in Rome con-
sidered him, he was Catherine's most trusted agent. He
forwarded letters from her whether to special correspon-
dents or intended as a kind of general epistle to be passed
from one to another ; he took the matter vigorously in
hand when a certain Migliorino settled himself in Lapa's
empty house while she was in Rome, and would not
depart ; it was he who had to recover a book, probably
the "Dialogue," lent to Contessa Bianchina Salimbeni
who had not returned it, as is the manner of borrowers
of books in all ages ; Catherine was anxious to recover it,
and wrote urgently on the subject. Again, it was Stefano
who was to clear up the mystery of a horse which

278 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Catherine was asserted to have ordered, while she on
her side declared that she knew nothing about it, and so
on with various commissions, one of which has puzzled
all readers of her letters, since why he should procure and
send to Rome a Capretto raso for the household in Via
di Papa — a skinned or shaven kid — no one can guess.
It must surely have been a skin ; he has inquired what
and how much to get, and found that one would suffice,
and it was to be conveyed by the son of the wood master,
who was not, as might be supposed, the head forester,
but the artist who carved the woodwork in the Duomo.
Stefano's letters are quite modern in their gaiety and
lightness of touch — charming, impulsive and loving, and
his grumbles at being in Siena instead of Rome are
delightful. The " College " in Via di Papa missed him
as much as he missed them ; in one of the last letters
which he received from Catherine she writes, " Most dear
son ... I do not ask you to come, but right glad should
I be if you were here or could come, if you could do so
without giving offence. But with offence or trouble to
your father and mother, no, unless it were a necessary
thing. That I desire you to avoid at the present time
as much as you can ; I am certain that if Divine Good-
ness sees it best, objections will cease, and you will come
in peace. Come if you can," she adds, her longing for
this loved and lovable follower overcoming her prudence.
A message from Barduccio follows, perhaps inserted by
himself as he wrote from Catherine's dictation. " Your
negligent brother says you are to come soon ; there is
something which he has to do, and he wants your
company. It seems difficult to find how to do it unless
you are with him, so much so that if you do not come, he
will go to you before doing it." The letter ends with a
message about the missing book, which ought to have
come several days earlier. " If you go there " — to Rocca

LAST DAYS IN ROME 279

d'Orcia, — " say that it is to be sent at once, and order
whoever goes there to say this without fail."1

It must indeed have rbeen impossible for Stefano to
break through the obstacles which detained him at Siena
if he did not at once respond to the call in this letter,
and still more to the cry in another of " When wilt thou
come ? Ah, come soon," although at this time he had
not realised her condition. She had so often seemed
hopelessly ill and yet had rallied that perhaps even those
who saw her daily could not believe death near, and her
indomitable energy made her continue her usual occupa-
tions in defiance of pain and feebleness. Just before the
almost fatal attack of which she tells Raimondo, she had
written to Urban and to three Cardinals, whose names
are not given, and one last letter she wrote to Giovanna
of Naples, probably rather earlier, full of sorrow and
warning, appealing to her to have pity on her own soul,
and on the people whom she had for years governed
wisely — a testimony worth much — but who now were
rending one another like wild beasts. " One holds for
the white rose and one for the red ; one for truth and one
for falsehood. Yet all were created by the stainless rose
of God's eternal will, and all were regenerated to grace in
the red rose of Christ."

Tommaseo, commenting on this, says that the arms in
one branch of Urban's family were six red roses, and that
the allusion seems to imply a red rose being the badge
of the party of Urban and a white one of the Clementines,
and Burlamacchi conjectures that the Freelances of Hawk-
wood's band wore one of them, and carried the badges
back to England, to become those of York and Lancaster,
but this seems little likely. The letter to Urban bears
traces in its broken and sometimes incoherent sentences
of the great effort made to write it.2 Although not
1 L. 365. 2 L. 371.

280 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

placed as the last dictated or written by her in the edition
of Tommaseo, it surely must have been so. The one
which he places after it, to " Messer Carlo della Pace,"
otherwise Charles of Durazzo, must have been written at
an earlier time, when she had full command of her powers ;
it is as clear, urgent and direct as any of those written
years before this last stage in her history, while that
intended for Urban is rather a mystical outpouring than
a letter in the usual sense. How greatly she suffered
in mind and body at this time is betrayed by a prayer
made not long before she broke down altogether, which
concludes, after a passionate entreaty that at any en-
durance of agony she may be allowed to see the Church
reformed, with a most touching petition that if indeed it
should please God to keep her yet longer " in this vessel,"
He would heal and uphold it so that it should not be
utterly torn to pieces. Catherine had reached the limit of
endurance when she prayed thus.

CHAPTER XIV

A GOOD FIGHT WON

BEFORE Catherine was entirely unable to leave the
house, she sometimes went to sit in the garden
of a friend, and here on one occasion she was
found by Tomaso Petra. Death was plainly seen in
her countenance, and the question suggested itself to his
legal mind whether she had settled her worldly affairs.
" Mother," he said, " it would seem as if Christ your
Bridegroom would withdraw you from this life. Have
you made your last arrangements ? " Catherine asked in
surprise what a woman who possessed nothing could have
to arrange. He answered that she ought to indicate in
her will what each one of her spiritual family was to do
after her spirit was released from the body, adding that
he had a request to make, namely that when that time
came he should be permitted to see her spirit. " That
does not seem possible," she said ; " either the soul is saved,
and then her perfect bliss makes her forget the small
things of this world, or she is lost, and the infinite pains
which she suffers forbid such a favour. If in Purgatory
she partakes of both conditions, the difficulty is the
same."

But she promised to pray that Petra's wish might be
granted, and his words as to her followers sank into her
mind ; she gave many charges and directions to her
friends and disciples ; the Mantellate who had ac-
companied her to Rome were placed under the guidance

281

282 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and care of Alessia dei Saracini ; the mantle which she
prized so much she left to Delia Fonte ; her writings, as
we know, were bequeathed to Raimondo da Capua. She
silenced her longing to see him again by telling herself
that he was serving the Church better than if he had been
at her bedside. A great joy came to her in the arrival
of Fra Bartolomeo Domenico, who was sent to Rome on
business by his monastery in Siena, and who entered her
room unexpectedly at the end of Lent. Unprepared for
the change in her since they had last met, he burst into
tears. She tried to tell him how glad she was that he
had come, but he could barely hear her voice. The next
day was Easter Sunday and her birthday, and at dawn
she received the Eucharist at his hands. She had seemed
too feeble to move on her bed, but to the joyful surprise
of all she suddenly rose, and knelt with closed eyes and
clasped hands, in a rapture of prayer. The temporary
strength vanished with the occasion ; she had to be carried
back to her bed of planks, and lay unable to move hand
or foot.

She rallied enough to have several conversations with
Fra Bartolomeo, who spent every spare moment with her,
but when the business on which his Provincial had sent
him was finished, the friar who had accompanied him, and
who does not seem to have known Catherine, pressed him
to return to Siena. He could not make up his mind to
do so, and told her that it was impossible for him to leave
Rome until she was better. " How can I leave you when
you are dying ? " he exclaimed, " were I away I should
leave everything to hurry here." " My son, I should like
to have you," she answered, " and I should like to have
Fra Raimondo, but it is not God's will that I should have
this, and I want His will, not mine. You must go."
" Then promise that you will pray to be healed before I
leave here," he said. Neither he nor any around her could

A GOOD FIGHT WON 283

believe that such a misfortune as losing her could really
come to pass. She smiled and promised, and when he
came to bid her farewell, she seemed so cheerful that his
hopes of her restoration to health rose. She stretched out
her arms to him, kissed him and bade him go, knowing
well that they should not meet on earth again. But Fra
Bartolomeo went back to Siena full of hope, and the news
of her death which soon reached him was a cruel blow.
" Seducisti me, Domine, et seductus sum, fortior me fuisti,
et invaluisti," he exclaims with Jeremiah in bitterness of
soul.

From this time Catherine grew weaker and weaker,
but still, against her will, her wonderful vitality kept death
at bay. " I die and yet cannot die," she had said at an
earlier time, nor as it seemed could she do so even now,
but the time was near. Stefano Maconi broke through
all which detained him, to come to her bedside, warned,
as he said, by a voice which he heard while praying in
the chapel of the Spedale bidding him hasten to Rome,
as her departure was at hand. When he stood by the
bed where she had lain for over two months in intense
suffering, her greeting was characteristic. " Thou art
come at last, my son, and hast obeyed the voice of God
who will not fail to show thee His will. Go and confess
thy sins, and prepare with thy companions to give thy
life for the Sovereign Pontiff, Urban VI."

Perhaps the joy of seeing him had lent her a little
strength, for she was able to dictate at least one letter to
him, and spoke words of loving advice and direction,
carefully treasured by those who heard them, and written
down by Caffarini, who gives them as a connected
discourse, a .thing impossible in Catherine's feeble state,
suffering as she did such pain that she who never com-
plained and who had endured so much joyfully was
heard to say that she believed fiends were permitted to

284 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

torture her, though she added immediately, " Nevertheless
I leave both life and death to the will of my Creator. If by
abiding here I can be of any use to any one, I refuse neither
labour nor pain nor torment, but am ready for the salvation
of my neighbour to give my life a thousand times, and, were
that possible, in even greater suffering."

Wasted as she was, and reduced to utter weakness,
Caffarini describes her expression " as if it had been that of
an angel." Once seeing the tears of those standing round
her bed she said, " Dear children, let not this " — her
death — " sadden you ; rather rejoice and be exceeding
glad to think that I am leaving a place of many sufferings
to go to rest in the quiet sea, the Eternal God, and to be
united for ever with my most sweet and loving Bridegroom.
And I promise to be more with you, and more useful,
since I leave darkness to pass into the true and everlasting
light."

As she looked round on her disciples the same touching
fear crossed her mind as she had felt with regard to
Raimondo ; perhaps in her anxiety for their spiritual
need she had too much overlooked due care for those
which were physical ; if it were so she asked their forgive-
ness, and also for any fault which she had committed
towards them. With what tears and protestations they
answered may be imagined. Then she blessed each, and
turning her eyes to her mother, who stood weeping beside
her, begged her blessing for herself. Lapa could only
reply by tearful requests that she would beg God to give
her strength to enable her to submit to losing her child.
" I would you could have seen," wrote Barduccio Canigiani
to his sister, a nun in a convent near Florence, " with
what respect and humility she repeatedly asked for the
blessing of her old mother, who in turn besought the
prayers of her daughter, and begged her to obtain the
grace not to offend God by the greatness of her grief.

A GOOD FIGHT WON 285

Catherine prayed again out loud for us all, and so tender
and humble were her words that we thought our hearts
would break in twain." Caffarini mentions other par-
ticulars of these last days, among which is her declaration
that she had never lost her childhood's longing for a
hermit life, and had prayed to be allowed to undertake it,
but it had been clearly revealed to her that her work was
to be in the world.

Though steadfast in faith and assured that her deep
penitence for all shortcomings was accepted, peace was
not yet won. From every biography of her it appears
that always after an exhausting strain of soul she was
haunted by the terrible visions which tortured her in the
early days of her vocation. Her strength, such as it was,
suddenly failed altogether, and the Prior of St Antonio,
who was in Rome, administered extreme unction. All
through the Sunday before Ascension Day there had
seemed no sign of life except the painful breathing too
well known to those who have watched dying beds, but
suddenly those round her perceived with infinite distress
that with reviving consciousness her mind was wandering
in some region of indescribable horror. That it must be
so they saw from the movements of her hands and the
expression of her dimmed eyes, and from her broken
words. Sometimes she seemed listening intently to
awful things unheard by any one else ; sometimes she
cried aloud. " Peccavi, Domine, miserere mei," she
moaned repeatedly, each time lifting her arm and
dropping it heavily. Once, as if the memory of
Raimondo's warning had recurred to her, she exclaimed,
as if vehemently repelling an accusation, " Vain glory ?
Never, but the true glory of Christ crucified." Alessia
supported her in her arms, but she was beyond mortal
help. Suddenly her eyes kindled, and her face took such
an expression of peace that it was a joy only to look

286 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

upon her, and the sight and certainty that she had
emerged from this dread abyss of horror " somewhat com-
forted the grief of her afflicted children, who stood
weeping round her in a grief that may be imagined," and
words of prayer and penitence fell from her lips, " high
things which for our sins we were not worthy to under-
stand," wrote Barduccio, and often so feebly uttered as to
be hardly audible. " We caught a few words by bending
over her lips, but my grief hindered me from hearing
much," but he distinguished enough to know that she was
praying for Urban and the Church, " and also with great
fervour she prayed for all her beloved children whom God
had given her, and whom she loved with a very great love,
using many of the words wherewith our Lord prayed to
His Eternal Father, and so praying for us, signed and
blessed us."

They had set a reliquary on a little table by her bed,
but it was noticed that she looked only at the Cross
surmounting it. This reliquary passed into the keeping
of Stefano Maconi, who treasured it to the day of his
death. The long strife was over. " Feeling death close
at hand, she was heard to say, ' Lord, Thou callest me
to Thee, and I come, not in mine own merits, but only
in Thy mercy, which I ask in virtue of the most precious
blood of Thy dear Son.' " A few minutes later she
murmured, " Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit,"
and with these words on her lips Catherine of Siena went
to her rest.

Those who had most loved and reverenced her longed for
a few quiet hours before all Rome was stirred by the know-
ledge of her death. Stefano Maconi himself bore her body
to Santa Maria sopra Minerva, laying it wrapped in the
white robe and black mantle of the Mantellate within a
coffin of cypress wood. All the lines of pain were gone
from the calm face, and she lay like one asleep, every

. 2 -

E- g-s

A GOOD FIGHT WON 287

limb pliable, and so Stefano saw her during the long
hours that he watched beside her. The coffin was placed
behind the iron grille which shuts in the chapel of St
Dominic, so that it could not be touched by the throng
who pressed into the Church as soon as her death was
known, those who had sick friends struggling to bring
them as near to the coffin as they could, hoping that they
might be miraculously healed. Such was the press and
excitement that the attempts of now one, now another
preacher to speak her praises were useless, and at last
one called out as loudly as he could, " This holy virgin
has no need of our panegyrics ; she preaches sufficiently
herself," and so came down from the pulpit. Although,
strangely enough, there is no indication that Urban took
any special heed of her while she lay ill, he ordered her
a magnificent funeral, which all the clergy of Rome
attended, and a yet more stately ceremony was organised
by Giovanni Cenci, to show the gratitude of the city for
all that she had done in its behalf, a ceremony " worthy
of a queen," and truly few if any queens ever ruled
with so wide a sway or turned so many to good as did
Catherine of Siena. All the greatest men of Rome,
ecclesiastical and secular, all the people of every class
attended her obsequies and told of her saintly life and
how it had ended when she was but thirty-three years
old.

There was weeping too in Siena, though when William
Flete came there to preach her funeral sermon, he told
his hearers, " It is with hymns of joy, not tears, that we
should celebrate the death of Catherine/' But to those
who are left, "not all the preaching from Adam can
make death other than death," and though they knew
how joyfully she had laid down the burden] of life, her
disciples' sorrow was a lifelong one. In old age Stefano
Maconi had no greater pleasure than to speak of Catherine

288 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

to his monks in the Certosa di Pavia, of which he became
the Prior. It had been her dying wish that he should
enter the Carthusian Order, and although he had until then
had no desire to do so, and encountered great opposition
from his family, a year after her death he began his
novitiate. It is pleasant to know that in old age he
often saw St Bernadino, and told him much of Catherine,
who died the same year as that in which the eloquent
young preacher was born, and a welcome glimpse of
several of her disciples and friends is found in a letter
written eleven years after her death by Maconi to Neri di
Landoccio. Maconi had risen with remarkable rapidity
in his Order, of which he was already General. He has
been visiting various Carthusian monasteries, and has
dined at Genoa, " with our common father, Messer
Raimondo," and Caffarini, " and our venerable mother,
Madonna Orietta Scotti, with great lovingness re-
cognised me as her son, and many other things I
could tell you which no doubt you would like to hear,"
writes Stefano, and so should we, but like the joke
which so greatly amused Messer Matteo, they remain
untold.

To the last everything concerning Catherine was dear
to Maconi ; there is a tradition that at every Easter
Sunday he caused dishes of beans to be set on the table
of his refectory, in memory of a long past Easter when he
and Catherine had nothing else to eat, so low were her
resources, and apparently his also. He could recall the
least details of the time they spent together, and once
when some trifle suddenly reminded him in old age of
her loving tenderness and kindness, he burst into tears
and wept as he might have done beside her coffin. The
monks who were with him helped him to a place where
he could sit with the soft air blowing on his face, and he
gradually recovered composure.

A GOOD FIGHT WON 289

What the grief for Catherine's loss was to the rough
old hermit of Vallombrosa, Don Giovanni delle Celle, may
be gathered from the letter, so moving in its simplicity,
to his former disciple, Barduccio Canigiani, who had left
him with his full approval, to follow her. The old man
sits desolate, his eyes dim with tears, and implores
Barduccio to come to him, for they both loved and
respected Catherine above all else, and now she is gone,
and has taken all the gladness of his life with her. Had
he not been comforted by a vision of her, he would have
gone down into utter darkness. The letter is the more
affecting that it has not a word of commonplace con-
solation in it, nothing of what a venerable hermit might
have thought himself called on to say ; it is a simple
outburst of feeling, and a greater testimony to what
Catherine was to those who knew her best than is the
studied oration of Flete, though he too grieved pro-
foundly. Don Giovanni always wrote out of the fulness of
his heart, whether moved by anger or by love. Barduccio's
letter to his sister is almost equally touching, and besides
these there is one from Nigi di Doccio to Neri di
Landoccio, who was in Naples at the time of Catherine's
death, and though he hurried back for her funeral, was
obliged to return there. " How wretched were we," he
exclaims with the vain regret known to so many mourners,
" to have so much of her company, and yet never know
her rightly, nor deserve her presence." He gives no
particulars of her last days ; Neri would have heard these
when he came to Rome, and Stefano Maconi would not
fail to write or tell them to so close a friend. He did
not enter the cloister but lived as a hermit for nearly
twenty-four years outside Porta Nuova at Siena, taking
with him his love of reading and poetry, especially
Dante, and not always returning the books which he
borrowed, and he wrote verses in praise of St Catherine,

290 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

of which, according to Caffarini, he made copies for his
friends. One of his poems, not on St Catherine, but
on St Giossaffa, may be seen in the Bodleian Library.
Though himself withdrawn from active life, he influenced
not a few who were in it, and who corresponded with him
and asked his advice, among whom were Maconi, Mala-
volti and Caffarini. He died in the Spedale in 1406, an
old man. A list exists made by a friend of his among the
monks of Oliveto of such possessions as he had at the
time of his death, and certainly he had kept his vow of
poverty to the letter, and was sadly in want of some one
to mend his garments, all of which except two hoods and
a pair of new stockings are entered as torn, except a robe,
which he or some kind friend had patched. All the
furniture mentioned consists in two beds, both much in
need of repair, and an old chair. In money he had
seventy-two soldi, sixty-two of which his friend dis-
tributed among the monks of Oliveto. The soldo was
worth more then than now, but the sum is certainly not
large ! The Olivetans also had a more valuable legacy in
his books and writings, together with a portrait of
Catherine which he had had painted.

But the one to whom her declaration that she would
be more helpful absent than present was most fully
verified was Raimondo da Capua. Hitherto he had been
a timid man, shrinking from responsibility, rather back-
ward in undertaking any difficult work. Now we find
him General of the Friars Preachers, not willingly indeed,
but accepting the post submissively, and then throwing
himself vigorously into the heavy duties of his office, and
fearlessly, though gently and discreetly, reforming all that
needed reform, ungrateful and even dangerous work
though it was, a labour in which he was greatly aided
by Fra Bartolomeo Domenico. His delight and refresh-
ment during fifteen long years was to write that

A GOOD FIGHT WON 291

" Legenda," with the help of Caffarini, which is the chief
source of our information regarding Catherine. Dry and
colourless as much of it is, it nevertheless became
extremely popular, and was translated into many lan-
guages, and excited a general desire for further details,
a desire strongly urged upon Caffarini by the Camaldolesi
of Florence, who begged him to set down all the ways
and daily doings of Catherine, and, knowing the ways of
copyists, they also bade him keep a watchful eye on any
whom he might employ, lest they should omit or alter
anything. This was the origin of the " Legenda minore,"
but the art of memoir writing was not one known to the
Middle Ages, even when the work was one of love, and
both Caffarini and Raimondo forget the woman who
influenced kings and republics too much in the saint to
give a complete portrait. The Prior of the Camaldolesi
adds that he can let him see some books which he has
about Catherine ; it would be interesting to know what
they were, and if they are still preserved in any monastery
of the Order. Caffarini circulated to the utmost of his
power all the writings left by her, sending an Italian
translation to Henry IV., " cankered Bolingbroke," who,
though he asked for it, does not seem exactly the person
to appreciate it. The " Dialogue " was already in the
Camaldolesi Library at Florence, for the Prior says that
he had read it repeatedly. The custom which prevailed
in Venice for many years of keeping April 29th, the day
on which Catherine died, as a festival in her honour was
introduced by Caffarini. He spent nearly half a century
there, and that anniversary was always marked by her
praises being solemnly told, while her portrait was dis-
played, surrounded by wreaths and crosses and a crown
of blossoms, in memory of her well-known love of flowers,
an appropriate setting, he would say, "since she was
destined to collect a multitude of souls as a sweet

292 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

nosegay to offer to God, while her own words and works
were like so many bouquets, and she herself bloomed in
the eternal Paradise in the month which is the season of
flowers."

That Siena should take no share in the honours
accorded to her " beata popolana " would have been
strange indeed, and Raimondo was bent on her possess-
ing, if not Catherine's entire body, at least a part of it.
To the modern mind the dismemberment of a loved and
revered form is altogether repugnant, but in the Middle
Ages, when the cult of relics had become a passion, no
such feeling existed. Stefano Maconi had felt no hesita-
tion in detaching some of Catherine's teeth to be carried
away and held as inestimable treasures, and when
Raimondo went again to Rome in 1381 he obtained
leave from the Pope to have her head enclosed in a
reliquary and sent to her native city. The Romans
might have protested, and the two friars to whom it was
entrusted were bidden to carry it away in great secrecy,
and place it in safe keeping in Siena, where it remained
without the knowledge of any but the few immediately
concerned. Some years later Raimondo went to Siena,
and held counsel with thoee whose advice was likely to
be most judicious, Maconi and Landoccio being of the
number, as to what steps to take in honouring Catherine.
Since Venice kept the 29th of April as her festival, it was
not fitting that her own city should be behindhand. The
authorities on being informed that the precious relic was
actually in Siena, at once seized the opportunity, and a
great ceremony was organised, preceded by a week of
preparation, during which sermons were preached setting
forth her beautiful life and great deeds. Raimondo's was
naturally the first, other Italians followed ; England was
represented by a Dominican named Brother John, "a
man greatly renowned as learned, holy, devout and full

ST. CATHERINE'S HEAD AT SAN DOMENICO IX SIKNA

A GOOD FIGHT WON 293

of faith," and Ireland too, in the person of another
Dominican, who had taken the name of Peter Martyr,
after that too famous persecutor of heretics whom the
Roman Church counts as having the honours of martyr-
dom. The city was thronged with visitors from all parts
of Italy, and one Sunday in early May all Siena was
astir, eagerly expecting the hour at which from the Porta
Romana the procession was to start. It passed slowly
through the city, with solemn chanting, headed by two
hundred girls all in white, adorned with all the jewels
which their families could furnish and carrying flowers,
both in memory of Catherine's love of them " and of her
words, for she was accustomed to say that every one
should wear white garments and bear flowers, meaning
thereby that they should be pure and innocent in their
life, and adorned with virtues." Next appeared a number
of men from the guilds and confraternities of Siena, who
represented some event in Catherine's life, each company
preceded by their banner, and with lighted torches borne
before them. Next, following a great crucifix, came the
hermits of Sienese territory in great numbers, holy men,
" all supported by the Republic, to the end that they
might with less distraction pray, meditate, and afflict their
bodies." The religious communities came after them,
and then the secular priests and canons, each man
carrying a wax taper, and after them the gentlemen,
magistrates and officials of the city in robes of office, two
and two, according to their rank. These were followed
by " the illustrious Consistory in their richest robes of
state ; after these the abbots and other dignitaries,
followed by the bishops in their pontificals, all with
their pastoral staves in their hands."

And then came the Prioress and Sisters of the Order
which had hesitated so long whether to receive Catherine
Benincasa among them, and had mis judged her so hardly

294 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

and who now regarded her as their glory. A few
had envied and slandered her, and many had loved
her greatly, and now all exulted in the thought that
however much others might claim in her, she belonged
especially to them. The Mantellate too had come from
all parts of Italy and were moving in a long double line
before the baldachino of gold brocade, embroidered with
jewels borne above the sacred relic in its splendid taber-
nacle of gold, in which Raimondo had caused to be
placed a portrait of Catherine. He himself was walking
on the left of the tabernacle, and on the right was the
Bishop of Siena. But the figure on which all eyes rested
was that of Lapa Benincasa, to whom in advanced old
age it was given to see the honours paid to her daughter
by their city, and as she walked amid the Mantellate
many wept, and others crowded round exclaiming " O
happy you to have thus beheld the triumph of your
child ! "

Arrived at the Church of San Domenico, Raimondo
gave a short address ; the Bishop blessed all present, and
the head of Catherine was placed in the sacristy, and for
a fortnight afterwards another course of sermons was
preached on her life and death by Dominicans, Italians,
French, Spanish and English.

Siena keeps the memory of that day five hundred
years ago in an annual festival in which all the citizens
take part, and crowds pass all day long in and out of the
Fullonica, and pray in the Church which now forms part
of it, and invoke St Catherine. The disorder and troubles
connected with the Schism delayed her canonisation until
1461, though practically she had been counted as a
saint from the time of her death. Then Pope Pius II.,
the famous ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, a Sienese by birth,
published the Bull which recognised her formally as one.
A fresco in the library of the Duomo records this event,

THK CANONISATION OF ST. CATHKRINE BY POPE PIUS II

A GOOD FIGHT WON 295

and another shows how he proclaimed a crusade, as
vainly as she did herself, but the coincidence is
appropriate.

One more honour shown to her memory remains to be
recorded. When Santa Maria sopra Minerva was re-
opened after being restored in 1865, her ashes were
carried through the streets of Rome in a silver urn on a
bier covered with crimson velvet, borne by four Bishops,
while the regular clergy, the collegiate chapters, the
theological students and the Sisters of Penance, as the
Mantellate of the fourteenth century are now called,
walked in procession. Her statue lies under the high
altar of Santa Maria with lamps ever burning before it,
the most interesting of all the many objects of interest in
the great Dominican Church.

That Catherine of Siena was one of the three greatest
figures of the fourteenth century is beyond dispute,
though her character and her work have been very
variously judged, too often with an estimate coloured by
prejudice which does not sufficiently allow for the age in
which she lived or consider the facts of her life. Again, she
has been too much considered by some of her biographers
as simply a saint, by others as chiefly concerned with
politics, so that in either case only a partial view of her is
obtained. That her plans too often failed is true, the
tragic fate of great plans which came to nothing that
pursued her native city was hers also, but such failures
are greater than not a few successes. It may freely be
admitted that as a politician she was often mistaken. It
is not even sure that Italy might have been stronger and
better had the Popes never returned to Rome. But it is
not by what Catherine did, but by what she was that she
influenced her own and the following generations. When
Dante speaks of the Florentine whom he utterly despised
and hated, he can find no words more scathing than

296 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

" Bonta non & che sua memoria fregi."1 In the eulogium
which Pius II. pronounced at the canonisation of
Catherine of Siena the most pregnant sentence is that
which declares that " none ever approached her without
going away better."

1 Inf. viii. 1. 47.

FINIS

INDEX

Aguzzari, 26 ; his " Assempri," 76.
Albizzi, Pietro, 101.
Aleta, Amelio da, 178.
Alexander VII., Pope, 71.
Ammirato on Catherine of Siena,

152, 212.

Anjou, Dukes of, 172-173, 198, 254.
Anti-pope elected, 232.
Antonio, Fra, 266, 267.
Avignon, 159 ; versus Rome, 144 ;

Inquisition in, 160.

B

Bacceliere, title of, 266.

Barbardori, 148-149.

Bartolomeo, Fra, 102, 123, 170,
282-283.

Baths, 21-22.

Belcaro, 130-131, 198.

Bells in Siena, 38.

Benincasa, Bonaventura, 13, 14.

Catherine, childhood, 2, 5,

10-12 ; austerities, 19, 95 ; becomes
a Mantellata, 22 ; spiritual struggle,
22-23 ; slandered, 51 ; powers of
healing, 52 ; education, 52 ; family
troubles, 58 ; called to Florence,
62 ; letters, 67 ; education, 77 ;
goes to Pisa, 97 ; Stigmata, 103 ;
at Gorgona, 117; Avignon, 157;
meets Gregory XL, 1 1 8; ignored
by Florence, 168 ; Addresses
Cardinals, 169-170; mystic states,
175 ; at Toulon, 183 ; Genoa, 182 ;
at Varazze, 184 ; Leghorn, 191 ;
returns to Siena, 192 ; Gregory dis-
pleased, 198 ; sent to Florence
again, 196-197, 200 ; induces
Florentines to observe the Inter-
dict, 207 ; life threatened, 215 ;
returns to Siena, 219 ; her dialogue,

220-222 ; view of the Schism,
236-237, 239; called to Rome,
243 ; spiritual distress, 273 ; death,
286 ; canonisation, 294.

Benincasa, Eugenia, 206.

Lapa, gives birth to Catherine,

2 ; character, 3 ; owns money, 4 ;
distress at Catherine's austerities,
1 6, 17; at her absences, 88, 166 ;
attends her deathbed, 284 ; sees
honours shown to Catherine, 294.

Bernadino, San, 34-35, 71.

Black Death, i, 40.

Bologna, Catherine's visit there, 161.

Brigitta of Sweden, 142-143.

Buonconti, 98, 114.

Caftarini, 79, 132, 291.

Calisse on Avignon, 159.

Canigiani, 212, 214, 217.

Barduccio, 217, 275, 284-285.

Capo, Giovanna di, 121, 245.

Captains of the people, 211.

Catherine of Siena, see Benincasa.

Catherine of Sweden, 248-249.

Cavalcanti, Guido di, 209.

Celle, Giovanni delle, 81, no, 113,
119, 289.

Cesena, 154.

Charles IV. in Siena, 57.

Clement VII. , 232.

Compagnia del Bruco, 57 ; di San
Giorgio, 155, 258.

Congress at Sarzana, 210, 211.

Corneto, Gregory XI. at, 187.

Crusade, 103, 105, 139; Don Gio-
vanni delle Celle on, 110-112.

I)

Dante, 42-44, 72-73, 94, 115, I5L252-

"97

298

INDEX

"Dialogue," 220-222.
Dino, Giovanni di, 21 1.
Domenico, Fra Bartolomeo, 283.
Duguesclin, 107.

Eight of War, 138-150; Catherine's
letter to, 167-168 ; treachery to-
wards her, 1 68 ; resist peace, 209-
210.

Election of Urban VI., 224-226.

Estaing, Cardinal, 97.

Farinata degli Uberti, 205-206.

Feuds in Siena, 44, 90.

Flete's affection for Catherine, 81 ;
states the rules by which she lived,
1 02 ; indignant with Don Giovanni
delle Celle, 1 12-1 13 ; on Catherine's
desire for solitude, 264-265 ; his
mode of life, 266 ; preaches in
Siena, 289.

Florence, distress in, 202 ; heresy in,
204-206; outbreak in, 214; parties
in, 219.

Fondi, Conte di, 241, 254.

Fonte, Delia, 121.

Fraticelli, 113, 165-166, 206.

Freelances, 41, 105-109.

Friars, 7, 10-62.

Gambacorta, 97.

Games in Siena, 29, 32.

Gano, Nera di, 208.

Gesuati, 80.

Giovanna of Naples 70, 231, 239;
Catherine's warnings to, 239-240;
preserves Catherine s letters, 241.

Gorgona, 117-119-

Gregory XL, his nepotism, 96 ;
character, 99 ; difficulties, 143 ;
fear of poison, 145 ; a student, 176;
leaves Avignon, 177; journey to
Genoa, 178-179; visits Catherine
by night, 185 ; journey to Rome,
186-188 ; displeased with Catherine,

193 ; sends her to Florence, 197 ;
death, 21 1, 219.
Guttabraccia, 101.

H

Hawkwood, 107-108.

Healing powers of Catherine, 54.

Hermits called to Rome, 164.

Interdict in Florence, 149 ; effect of,
150 ; raised, 219.

Landoccio, Neri di, 72, 120, 125, 153,

158, 250, 289, 292.
Landro, Cione di, 84, 137.
Lapo, Buoncorso di, 169.
Laudi, 208-209.
Lecceto, 76.
Legates, 114, 136; Macchiavelli on,

137-138.

Legenda, 23-24 ; Minore, 191.
Letters, Catherine's, 67-74.
Luna, Cardinal di, 203, 235.

M

Macchiavelli on Legates, 137.

Maconi, Giovanna di, 90, 166-167.

Stefano : Early view of

Catherine, 90 ; becomes devoted
to her, 91-92 ; collects her letters,
119; letter to Venetian ecclesi-
astic, 163 ; testimony to her pene-
tration, 170; implores her to heal
Landoccio, 183 ; sent to Florence,
197 ; asserts Catherine's innocence,
213 ; Catherine commends " Sister
Lapa " to him, 245 ; her agent in
Siena, 275-279; comes to her death-
bed, 283 ; her reliquary, 286 ;
carries her body to Santa Maria
sopra Minerva, 286-287 5 relics of
Catherine, 192 ; devotion to her
memory, 288.

Magistrates of Siena, Letter to, 88.

INDEX

299

Maimbourg on Catherine, 260-261.
Malavolti, 41, 77 ; Francesco, 125-127.
Mantellate of Pisa, 95, 97-98.
Matteo, Messer, 117, 269.
Medici, Salvestro dei, 113-114.
Melchtilde of Magdeburg, 81.

N

Nanni di Ser Nanni, 128, 131.
Nepotism, Catherine on, 96.
Noellet, Legate, 136-137.

O

Ochino, 26, 79, 86, 133.
Otho of Brunswick, 231.

Paleario on Siena, 128.

Petra, Tomaso, 160, 233, 381.

Petrarch on dress, 36 ; not a mystic,
69 ; his letters, 7 1-72; writes to
Rienzi, 99 ; seized by brigands,
145 ; advises a peaceful entry into
Rome, 189 ; on ecclesiastical luxury,
198 ; feeling for Rome, 252.

Piacenza, Cristofero di, 172.

Piccolomini, Gabriele, 125.

Pilgrimages, Catherine on, 69 ;
Giovanni delle Celle on, 110-112.

Pipino, Francesco, 216.

Pisa and Crusades, 104.

Plague, I, 53.

Raimondo delle Vigne, 23, 64, 79;
Catherine and Raimondo, 114; in
Rome, 233 ; sent to France, 251-
252 ; general of Friars Preachers,
290; writes " Legenda," 290 ; causes
head of Catherine to be taken to
Siena, 292.

Robert of Geneva sacks Cesena, 154 ;
at Sarzana, 2IO ; heads Gallic party,
265 ; checks Urban VI. 's violence,
230 ; elected Anti-pope, 232 ; re-
jected, in England, 233 ; welcomed

in Naples, 239; supported by
France, 242 ; flees to Avignon,
260 ; welcomed by Cardinals there,
260.

Rome and Florence, 138; Rome in
fourteenth century, 144-145; beset
with enemies, 254-255 ; rebels against
Urban VI., 271-272.

Salimbene dei Solienbeni, 44.

Salimbeni, Cione di Landro die, 84,
137-

family of, 45-46, 83-86 ;

Agnolino dei Salimbeni, 85 ; Bene-
detta, 85 ; Giovanni Agnolo, 84 ;
Isa, 85 ; Pentisilea, 85-86.

Sapia, 44.

Saracini, Alessia di, 82, 246, 281,
282.

Schism, 232-236; Catherine on, 115,
235-236, 237.

Scotti, 183 ; Orietta, 184, 288.

Siena in fourteenth century, 25 ; amuse-
ments, 28, 31, 35; dress, 35-36;
statutes, 36-38 ; commerce, 40-42 ;
bankers, 42-43 ; party spirit, 44-45 ;
palaces, 46-47 ; fire in Siena, 47-
48 ; water, 48 ; Siena and Tuscan
League, 139 ; condition in 1377,
192 ; ambassadors to Rome
captured, 246.

Soderini and Catherine, 152; Soderini
and Eight of War, 196; his palace
destroyed, 216.

Spinelli, 103, 239.

Stigmata, 103.

St Angelo, 254, 256.

St Antimo, Abbot of, 87.

St Augustine at Ostia, 74.

St Gertrude, 94.

St Hildegard, 81.

" St Pol le Ber," 273.

Talamone, 42, 95, 158, 191, 276.
Tantucci, 77-78, 233.
Tebaldeschi, Cardinal, 225, 227, 237.
Temporal power, Catherine on, 141-
142.

300

Teresa, St, 103, 175.
Tezio on luxury in Siena, 43.
Tolomei, 45, 83 ; Giacomo, 83.
Tuldo, 66-67.

INDEX

u

Ungaro on Catherine, 244.

University of Siena, 49 ; of Paris,
161-162.

Urban VI. elected, 226 ; his character,
228-229 ; offends Giovanna of Naples,
231 ; calls Catherine to Rome, 243-

244 ; her reluctance to obey, 243-
244 ; Urban desires to send her to
Naples, 248 ; goes in procession to
St Peter's, 159.
Usurers, Dante on, 42.

Varano, 218.

Varazze, 181-182.

Vico, Francesco di, 267-268.

Visconti, Bernabo, 135-136, 210.

Voragine, Giacomo de, 181.

TURNBULL AND SI'BARS, PKINTEKS, EDINBURGH

A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY METHUEN

AND COMPANY: LONDON

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CONTENTS

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Leaders of Religion,

VAGE

2-13

19
ao

PACK

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Little Galleries, ... 38

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Little Library, a8

Miniature Library, . . 30

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Social Questions of To-day, 31

Textbooks of Science, . . 31

Textbooks of Technology . 31

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Westminster Commentaries, 32

Fiction 32-36

The Shilling Novels, . . 37

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Methuen's Sixpenny Books, 39

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Holdsworth (W. S.), M.A. A HISTORY
OF ENGLISH LAW. /» Two Volvmet.
Vol. f. Demy Zvo. los. M. net.

Holland (Canon Scott). See Library of

Holt (Emily). THE SECRET OF POPU-
LARITY : How to Achieve Social Success.
Cr. Zvo. 3^. 6d. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Holyoake(Q. J.). THE CO-OPERATIVE
MOVEMENT TO-DAY. Fourth Edition.
Cr. Zi'o. zs. 6d.

Hone (Nathaniel J.). See Antiquary's Books.

Hoppner. See Little Galleries.

Horace. See Classical Translations.

Horsburgh(E. L. S.), M.A. WATERLOO :
A Narrative and Criticism. With Plans.
Second Edition. Cr. Zvo, y. See also
Oxford Biographies.

Horth(A. C.). See Textbooks of Technology.

Horton(R. F.),D.D. See Leaders of Religion.

Hosie (Alexander). MANCHURIA. With
Illustrations and a Map. Second Edition.
Demy Zvo. -js. 6d. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

How (F. D.). SIX GREAT SCHOOL-
MASTERS. With Portraits and Illustra-
tions. Second Edition. Demy Zvo. js. 6d.

HoweIl(G.). SeeS. Q. S.

Hudson (Robert). MEMORIALS OF A
WARWICKSHIRE PARISH. Illustrated.
Demy Zvo. 15*. net.

Hughes (C. E.). THE PRAISE OF
SHAKESPEARE. An English Anthol-
ogy. With a Preface by SIDNEY LEE.
Demy Zvo. 3.?. 6d. net.

Hughes (Thomas). TOM BROWN'S
SCHOOLDAYS. With an Introduction
and Notes by VERNON RBNDALL. Leather.
Royal y>mo. zs. 6J. net.

Hutchinson (Horace Q.) THE NEW
FOREST. Illustrated in colour with
50 Pictures by WALTER TYNDALK and 4
by Miss LUCY KEMP WELCH. Lnrgt
Demy Zvo. 21 s. net.

Hutton (A. W.), M.A. See Leaders of
Religion and Library of Devotion.

Hutton (Edward). THE CITIES OF
UMBRIA. With many Illustrations, of
which 20 are in Colour, by A. PISA. Second
Edition. Cr.Zvo. 6s.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

10

MESSRS. METHUEN'S CATALOGUE

ENGLISH LOVE POEMS. Edited with
an Introduction. Fcap. Zvo. y. 6d. net.

Hutton (R. H.). See Leaders of Religion.

Hutton (W. H.). M.A. THE LIFE OF
SIR THOMAS MORE. With Portraits.
Second Edition. Cr. &vo. 5$. See also
Leaders of Religion.

Hyett (P. A.X A SHORT HISTORY OF
FLORENCE. Demy Svo. 7*. 6d. net.

Ibsen (Henrik). BRAND. A Drama.
Translated by WILLIAM WILSON. Third
Edition. Cr. Bvo. y °</.

Inge (W. R.), M.A., Fellow and Tutor of
Hertford College, Oxford. CHRISTIAN
MYSTICISM. The Bampton Lectures for
1899. Demy Bvo. izs. 6d. net. See also
Library of Devotion.

Innes(A. D.), M.A. A HISTORY OF THE
BRITISH IN INDIA. With Maps and
Plans. Cr. 8vo. 6s.

ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS.
With Maps. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. net.

Jackson (C. E.), B.A. See Textbooks of
Science.

Jackson (S.), M.A. See Commercial Series.

Jackson (F. Hamilton). See Little Guides.

Jacob (F.), M.A. See Junior Examination
Seiies.

Jeans (J. Stephen). See S. Q. S. and Busi-
ness Books.

Jeffreys(D. Qwyn). DOLLY'S THEATRI-
CALS. Described and Illustrated with 24
Coloured Pictures. Super Royal \brno. 2s.6d.

Jenks (E.), M.A., Reader of Law in the
University of Oxford. ENGLISH LOCAL
GOVERNMENT. Cr. 8vo. 2*. 6d.

Jenner (Mrs. H.). See Little Books on Art.

Jessopp (Augustus), D.D. See Leaders of !
Religion.

Jevons (F. B.), M.A., Litt.D., Principal of
Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham. RE-
LIGION IN EVOLUTION. Cr. &vo.
3J. 6d. net.

See also Churchman's Library and Hand-
books of Theology.

Johnson(Mrs. Barham). WILLIAM BOD-
HAM DONNE AND HIS FRIENDS.
Illustrated. DemvZvo. las. 6d.net.

Johnston (Sir H. H.), K.C.B. BRITISH
CENTRAL AFRICA. With nearly 200
Illustrations and Six Maps. Third Edition.
Cr. t,to. i&s. net.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

Jones (R. Crompton), M A. POEMS
OF THE INNER LIFE. Selected by.
Eleventh Edition. Fcaf>. Sz'O. -zs. 6d. net.

Jones (H.). See Commercial Series.

Jones (L. A. Atherley), K.C., M.P., and
Beilot (Hugh H. L.). THE MINERS'
GUIDE TO THE COAL MINES
REGULATION ACTS. Cr.&vo. 2*. 6d. net.

•COMMERCE IN WAR. Demy Zvo. sis.
net.

Jonson (Ben). See Standard Library.

Julian (Lady) of Norwich. REVELA-
TIONS OF DIVINE LOVE. Edited by
GRACE WARRACK. Cr. Sva. 3.1. 6d.

Juvenal. See Classical Translations.

•Kappa.' LET YOUTH BUT KNOW:
A Plea for Reason in Education. Cr. Zvo.
3J. 6d. net.

Kaufmann (M.). See S. Q. S.

Keating (J. F.), D.D. THE AGAPE AND
THE EUCHARIST. Cr. 8w. 3*. 6d.

Keats (John). THE POEMS OF. Edited
with Introduction and Notes by E. de Selin-
court, M.A. Demy 8vo. js. 6d. net. See
also Little Library, Standard Library, and
E. de Selincourt.

Keble(John). THE CHRISTIAN YEAR.
Withan Introduction and Notes by W. LOCK,
D.D., Warden of Keble College. Illustrated
byR. ANNINGBELI.. Third Edition. Fcap.
8vo. 3*. 6d. ; padded morocco, 5^. See also
Library of Devotion.

Kempis (Thomas a). THE IMITATION
OF CHRIST. With an Introduction by
DEAN FARRAR. Illustrated by C. M. GERF..
Third Edition. Fcap. &vo. 3*. 6d.; padded
morocco. $s.

Also Translated by C. BIGG, D.D. Cr.
&vo. 3*. 6d. See also Library of Devotion
and Standard Library.

Kennedy (Bart.). THE GREEN
SPHINX. Cr. 8vo. v. M. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Kennedy (James Houghton), D.D., Assist-
ant Lecturer in Divinity in the University of
Dublin. ST. PAUL'S SECOND AND
THIRD EPISTLES TO THE CORIN-
THIANS. With Introduction, Dissertations
and Notes. Cr. Sr'o. 6s.

KestelKJ. D.). THROUGH SHOT AND
FLAME : Being the Adventures and Ex-
periences of J. D. KESTELL, Chaplain to
General Christian de Wet. Cr. 8ro. 6*.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Kimmins (C. W.), M.A. THE CHEMIS-
TRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. Illus-
trated. Cr. &vo. 2S. 6d.

Kinglake (A. W.). See Little Library.

Kipling (Rudyard). BARRACK-ROOM
BALLADS. T$rd Thousand. Twenty-
first Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

THE SEVEN SEAS. 62 nd Thou sand. Tenth
Edition. Cr. 87-0. 6s.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

THE FIVE NATIONS. 41^ Thousand.
Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES. Sixteenth
Edition. Cr. %vo. 6s.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Knight (Albert E.). THE COMPLETK
CRICKETER. Illustrated. Demy 87-0
•js. 6d. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

GENERAL LITERATURE

ii

Knowling: (R« J.)> M.A., Professor of New
Testament Exegesis at King's College,
London. See Westminster Commentaries.

Lamb (Charles and Mary), THE WORKS
OF. Edited by E. V. LUCAS. Illustrated.
fn Seven Volumes. DemyZvo. TS.6d.each.

THE LIFE OF. See E. V. Lucas.
See also Little Library.

Lambert (F. A. H.). See Little Guides.

Lambros (Professor). See Byzantine Texts.

Lane- Poole ("Stanley). A HISTORY OF
EGYPT IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Fully
Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. 6s.

Langbridge(F.),M.A. BALLADSOFTHE
BRAVE : Poems of Chivalry, Enterprise,
Courage, and Constancy. Second Edition.
Cr. &vo. is. fid.

Law (William). See Library of Devotion
and Standard Library.

Leach (Henry). THE DUKE OF DEVON-
SHIRE. A Biography. With 12 Illustra-
tions. Detny'&vo. i?s. 6rf. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Le Braz (Anatole). THE LAND OF
PARDONS. Translated by FRANCES M.
(JOSTLING. Illustrated in colour. Second
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.

Lee (Captain L. Melville). A HISTORY
OF POLICE IN ENGLAND. Cr. &vo.
3$. 6d. net.

Leigh (Percival). THE COMIC ENGLISH
GRAMMAR. Embellished with upwards
of 50 characteristic Illustrations by JOHN
LEECH. Postidmo. zs.6ii.net.

Lewes (V. B.), M.A. AIR AND WATER.
Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. 2S. 6d.

Lewis (Mrs. Qwyn). A CONCISE
HANDBOOK OF GARDEN SHRUBS.
Illustrated. Fcap.^vo. 3$. 6d. net.

Lisle (Fortune"ede). See Little Bookson Art.

Littlehales(H.). See Antiquary's Books.

Lock (Walter), D.D., Warden of Keble
College. ST. PAUL, THE MASTER-
BUILDER. Second Edition. Cr. Zvo.

THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Cr. %vo. 6s.

See also Leaders of Religion and Library

of Devotion.

Locker (F.). See Little Library.
Longfellow (H. W.). See Little Library.
Lorfmer (George Horace). LETTERS

FROM A SELF-MADE MERCHANT

TO HIS SON. fifteenth Edition. C>.

8vo. 6s.

A Colonial Edition is also published.
OLD GORGON GRAHAM. Second Edition.

Cr. &vo. 6s.

A Colonial Edition is also published,
Lover (Samuel). See I. P. L.
E. V. L. and C. L.'Q. ENGLAND DAY BY

DAY : Or, The Englishman's Handbook to

Efficiency. Illustrated by GEORGE MORROW.

Fourth Edition. Fcaf. 4(0. w. net

Lucas (E. V.). THE LIFE OF CHARLES
LAMB. With numerous Portraits and
Illustrations. Third Edition. Two Volt.
Demy 6vo. ais . net.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

A WANDERER IN HOLLAND. With
many Illustrations, of which 20 are in Colour
by HERBERT MARSHALL. Sixth Edition.
Cr. 8vo. 6s.
A. Colonial Edition is also published.

THE OPEN ROAD : a Little Book for Way-
farers. Tenth Edition. Fcaf. &vo. $s. ;
India Paper, -js. 6d.

THE FRIENDLY TOWN : a Little Book
for the Urbane. Third Edition, tcap.
8v0. 55. ; India Paper, •]!. 6d.

Lucian. See Classical Translations.

Lyde(L. \V.), M.A. See Commercial Series.

Lydon(Noel S.). See Junior School Books.

Lyttelton(Hon. Mrs. A.). WOMEN AND
THEIR WORK. Cr. &vo. as. 6<t.

M. M. HOW TO DRESS AND WHAT TO
WEAR. Cr. 8vo. is. net.

Macaulay (Lord). CRITICAL AND HIS-
TORICAL ESSAYS. Edited by F.C. MON-
TAGUE, M.A. Three Volumes. Cr. Zvo. iSs.
The only edition of this book completely
annotated.

M'Allen(J. E. B.), M.A. See Commercial
Series.

MacCulIoch (J. A.). See Churchman's

MacCunn (Florence A.). MARY STUART.

With over 60 Illustrations, including a

Frontispiece in Photogravure. Demy Zvo.

IOT. 6d. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published. See

also Leaders of Religion.
McDermott (E. R.). See', Books on Business.
M'Dowall(A. S.). See Oxford Biographies.
Mackay(A. M.). See Churchman's Library.
Magnus (Laurie), M.A. A PRIMER OF

WORDSWORTH. Cr. &vo. is. 6d.
Mahaffy(J. P.), Litt.D. A HISTORY OF

THE EGYPT OF THE PTOLEMIES.

Fully Illustrated. Cr. &vo. 6s.
Maitland(F.W.), LL.D., Downing Professor

of the Laws of England in the University of

Cambridge. CANON LAW IN ENG-
LAND. RoyalZvo. -is. 6d.
Maiden (H. E.), M.A. ENGLISH RF-

CORDS. A Companion to the History of

England. Cr. Zvo. 3$. 6d.
THE ENGLISH CITIZEN : HIS RIGHTS

AND DUTIES. Fifth, Edition. Cr. 6ve.

A 'SCHOOL HISTORY OF SURREY

Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. is. 6d.

Marchant (E. C.), M.A., Fellow of Peter,
house, Cambridge. A GREEK ANTHO-
LOGY Second Edition. Cr. Bra. 3.1. (>,{.

Marchant(C. E.)), M. A., and Cook (A. M.),
M.A. PASSAGES FOR UNSEKN
TRANSLATION, Third Edition. Cr.
8vo v. 6d.

12

MESSRS. METHUEN'S CATALOGUE

Marlowe (Christopher). See Standard
Library.

Marr(J. E.), F.R.S., F How ofSt John's Col-
lege, Cambridge. THE SCIENTIFIC
STUDY OF SCENERY. Second Edition.
Illustrated. Cr. 8v0. 6s.

AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. Illustrated.
Cr. 8vo. 6s.

Marvell (Andrew). See Little Library.

Masefleld (John). SEA LIFE IN NEL-
SON'S TIME. Illustrated. Cr. 8v0.
3i. 6J. net.

ON THE SPANISH MAIN. With Por-
traits and Illustrations. Demy 8v0. lot. 6d.
net.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

Maskell (A.). See Connoisseur's Library.

Mason (A. J.), D.D. See Leaders of Religion.

Massee (George). THE EVOLUTION OF
PLANT LI FE : Lower Forms. Illustrated.
Cr, 8vo. is. 6ii.

Massinger (P.). See Standard Library.

Masterman(C. F. G.), M.A. TENNYSON
AS A RELIGIOUS TEACHER. Cr.
8v0. 6s.

Matheson (Mrs. E. P.). COUNSELS OF
LIFE. Fcap. Zvo. 2s. 6d. net.

May (Phil). THE PHIL MAY ALBUM.
Second Edition, $to. is. net.

Mellows (Emma S.). A SHORT STORY
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Cr.
8vo. js. (>d.

Methuen (A. M. S.). THE TRAGEDY
OF SOU1H AFRICA. Cr. 8v0. 2S.net.
Also Cr. 8v0. $d. net.
A revised and enlarged edition of the
author's ' Peace or War in South
Africa.'

ENGLAND'S RUIN : DISCUSSED IN SIX-
TEEN LETTERS TO THE RIGHT HON.
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. Seventh Edi-
tion. Cr, 8v0. jd. net.

MIchelI(E. B.). THE ART AND PRAC-
TICE OF HAWKING. With 3 Photo-
gravures by G. E. LODGE, and other Illus-
trations. Demy Sz'O. los. 6d.

MHIais (J. G.). THE LIFE AND LET-
TERS OF SIR JOHN EVERETT
MILLAIS, President of the Royal Academy.
With many Illustrations, of which 2 are in
Photogravure. New Edition, Demy 8vo.
fs. 6d. net.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

Millin (G. F.). PICTORIAL GARDEN-
ING. Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. 35. 6d. net.

Millis(C. TO.M.I.M.E. See Textbooks of
Technology.

Milne (J. G.), M.A. A HISTORY OF
ROMAN EGYPT. Fully Illustrated.
Cr, &vf. 6s,

Milton (John), THE POEMS OF, BOTH
ENGLISH AND LATIN, Compos'd at
several times. Printed by his true Copies.

The Songs were set in Musick by Mr.
HENRY LAWES, Gentleman of the Kings
Chappel, and one of His Majesties Private
Musick.

Printed and publish'd according to Order.
Printed by RUTH RAWORTH for HUM-
PHREY MOSELEY, and are to be sold at the
signe of the Princes Armes in Pauls Church-
yard, 1645,

See also Little Library, Standard Library,
and R. F. Towndrow.

Minchin(H. C.),M A. See R. Peel.

Mitchell(P. Chalmers), M.A. OUTLINES
OF BIOLOGY. Illustrated. Second Edi-
tion. Cr. 8vo. 6s.

Mitton (G. E.). JANE AUSTEN AND
HER TIMES. With many Portraits and
Illustrations. Second Edition. Demy Zvo.
jos. 6d. net.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

' Moil (A.).' See Books on Business.

Moir (D. M.). See Little Library.

Money (L. G. Chlozza). RICHES AND
POVERTY. Second Edition Demy 8vo.
$j. net.

Montaigne. See C. F. Pond.

Moore (H. E.). See S. Q. S.

Moran (Clarence G.). See Books on Business.

More (Sir Thomas). See Standard Library.

Morfill (W. R.), Oriel College, Oxford. A
HISTORY OF RUSSIA FROM PETER
THE GREAT TO ALEXANDER II.
With Maps and Plans. Cr. 8v0. 3*. 6d.

Morlch (R. J.), late of Clifton College. See
School Examination Series.

Morris (J.). THE MAKERS OF JAPAN.
With many portraits and Illustrations.
Demyftvo. i2.r. 6i/. net.

A Colonial Edition is also published.

Morris (J. E.). See Litile Guides.

Morton (Miss Anderson). See Miss Brod-

THE 'MOTOR YEAR-BOOK FOR 1906.

With many Illustrations and Diagrams.

Demy 8vo. 7S. 6d. net.
Moule (H. C. G.), D.D. , Lord Bishop of Dur-

ham. See Leaders of Religion.
Muir (M. M. Pattison), M.A. THE

CHEMISTRY OF FIRE. Illustrated.

Cr. 8z'0. ss. (>d.

Mundella (V. A.), M.A. See J. T. Dunn.
Munro(R.), LL.D. See Antiquary's Books.
Naval Officer (A). See I. P. L.
Neal ( W. G. ). See R. N. Hall.
Newman (J. H.) and others. See Library

of Devotion.

Nichols (J. B. B.). See Little Library.
Nicklin (T.), M.A. EXAMINATION

PAPERS IN THUCYDIDES. Cr. &vo. as.
Nlmrod. See I. P. L.
Norgate (G. Le G.). SIR WALTER

SCOTT. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. js. 6d. ntt.

GENERAL LITERATURE

Norregaard (B. W.). THE GREAT
SIEGE : The Investment and Fall of Port
Arthur. Illustrated. Demy Svo. ios.6d.net.

Northcote (James), R.A. THE CONVER-
SATIONS OF JAMES NORTHCOTE,
R.A., AND JAMES WARD. Edited by
ERNEST FLETCHER. With many Portraits.
Demy Svo. los. 6d.

Norway (A. H.). NAPLES. With 25 Col-
oured Illustrations by MAURICE GRHIFFEN-
HAGEN. A New Edition. Cr. Svo. 6s,

Novalis. THE DISCIPLES AT SAIS AND
OTHER FRAGMENTS. Edited by Miss
UNA BIRCH. Fcap. Svo. 35. 6d.

Oldfield (W. J.), Canon of Lincoln. A
PRIMER OF RELIGION. Fcap Svo.
2J. 6d.

Oliphant (Mrs.). See Leaders of Religion.

Oman(C. W.C.), M.A., Fellow of All Souls',
Oxford. A HISTORY OF THE ART OF
WAR. Vol. ii.: The Middle Ages, from
the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century. Illus-
trated. Demy Svo. los. 6d. net.

Ottley (R. L.), D.D. See Handbooks of
Theology and Leaders of Religion.

Overton (J. H.). See Leaders of Religion.

Owen (Douglas). See Books on Business.

Oxford(M. N.), of Guy's Hospital. A HAND- |
BOOK OF NURSING. Third Edition.
Cr. Svo. 3*. 6d.

Pakes (W. C. C.). THE SCIENCE OF
HYGIENE. Illustrated. Demy Svo. 15*.

Palmer(Frederick). WITHKUROKIIN
MANCHURIA. Illustrated. Third
Edition. Demy Svo. js. 6d. net.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Parker (Gilbert). A LOVER'S DIARY.
Fcap. Svo. 55.

Parkes (A. K.). SMALL LESSONS ON
GREAT TRUTHS. Fcaf. Svo. is. 6d.

Parkinson (John). PAR ADISI IN SOLE
PARADISUS TERRESTRIS, OR A
GARDEN OF ALL SORTS OF PLEA-
SANT FLOWERS. Folio. £3, 3.9. net.

Parmenter (John). HELIO-TROPES, OR
NEW POSIES FOR SUNDIALS, 1625.
Edited by PERCIVAL LANDON. Quarto.
3.?. 6d. net.

Parmentier (Prof. Leon). See Byzantine
Texts.

Pascal. See Library of Devotion.

Paston (George). SOCIAL CARICA-
TURES IN THE EIGHTEENTH j
CENTURY. Imperial Quarto. £2, i2j. 6d. j
net. See also Little Books on Art and I. P. L. j

Paterson(W. R.)(Benjamin Swift). LIFE'S i
QUESTIONINGS. Cr. Svo. 3*. 6d. net. \

Patterson (A. H.). NOTES OF AN EAST
COAST NATURALIST. Illustrated in
Colour by F, SOUTHGATE. Second Edition.
Cr, Svo. f.s

NATURE IN EASTERN NORFOLK.
A series of observations on the Birds,
Fishes, Mammals, Reptiles, and stalk-
eyed Crustaceans found in that neigh-
bourhood, with a list of the species. With
12 Illustrations in colour, by FRANK
SOUTHGATE. Second Edit ion. Cr. Svo. 6*.

Peacock (N.). See Little Books on Art.

Pearce (E. H.), M.A. ANNALS OF
CHRIST'S HOSPITAL. Illustrated.
Demy Svo. is. 6d.

Peel (Robert), and Minchin (H. C.), M.A.
OXFORD. With 100 Illustrations in
Colour. Cr. Svo. 6s.

Peel (Sidney), late Fellow of Trinity College,
Oxford, and Secretary to the Royal Com-
mission on the Licensing Laws. PRACTI-
CAL LICENSING REFORM. Second
Edition. Cr. Svo. is. 6d.

Peters (J. P.), D.D. See Churchman's
Library.

Petrle (W.M. Flinders), D.C. L., LL.D.. Pro-
fessor of Egyptology at University College.
A HISTORY OF EGYPT, FROM THE
EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY.
Fully Illustrated. In six volumes. Cr.
Svo, 6s. each,

VOL. i. PREHISTORIC TIMES TO XVlTH
DYNASTY. Fifth Edition.

VOL. n. THE XVII™ AND XVIIlTH
DYNASTIES. Fourth Edition.

VOL. in. XIXTH TO XXXTH DYNASTIES.

VOL. iv. THE EGYPT OF THE PTOLEMIES.
J. P. MAHAFFY, Litt.D.

VOL. v. ROMAN EGYPT. J. G. MILNE, M.A.

VOL. vi. EGYPT IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
STANLEY LANE-POOLE, M.A.

RELIGION AND CONSCIENCE IN
ANCIENT EGYPT. Illustrated. Cr.
Svo. is. 6d.

SYRIA AND EGYPT, FROM THE TELL
EL AMARNA TABLETS. Cr. Svo. ts.6d.

EGYPTIAN TALES. Illustrated by TRIS-
TRAM ELLIS. In Two Volumes. Cr. Svo.
is. 6d. each.

EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART. With
120 Illustrations. Cr. Svo. 3*. 6d.

Phillips (W. A.). See Oxford Biographies.

Phillpotts (Eden). MY DEVON YEAR.
With 38 Illustrations by J. LEY PETHY-
BRIDGE. Second and Cheaper Edition.
Large Cr. Svo. 6s.

UP ALONG AND DOWN ALONG.
Illustrated by CLAUDE SHEPPERSON.
Cr. 4/0. ST. net.
A volume of poems.

Pienaar (Philip). WITH STEYN AND
DE WET. Second Edition. Cr. Svo.
3j. 6d.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Plarr (Victor G.) and Walton (F. W.). A
SCHOOL HISTORY OF MIDDLE-
SEX. Illustrated. Cr. Sr'O. is. 6d.

Plato. See Standard Library.

14

MESSRS. METHUEN'S CATALOGUE

Plautus. THE CAPTIVI. Edited, with
an Introduction, Textual Notes, and a Com-
mentary, by W. M. LINDSAY, Fellow of
Jesus College, Oxford. Demy Svo. T.OS. 6d.
net.

Plowden-Wardlaw (J. T.), B.A., King's
College, Cambridge. See School Examina-
tion Series.

Podmore (Prank). MODERN SPIRI-
TUALISM. Two Volumes. Demy Svo.
z\s. net.
A History and a Criticism.

Poer (J. Patrick Le). A MODERN
LEGIONARY. Cr. Svo. 6s.
A Colonial Edition is also published.

Pollard (Alice). See Little Books on Art.

Pollard ( A. W.). OLD PICTURE BOOKS.
Illustrated. DemyZvo. -js.6d.-net.

Pollard (Eliza F.). See Little Books on Art.

Pollock (David), M.I.N.A. See Books on
Business.

Pond (C. F.). A DAY BOOK OF MON-
TAIGNE. Edited by. Fcaf. Svo. 3*. 6d.
net.

Potter (M. C.), M.A., F.L.S. A TEXT-
BOOK OF AGRICULTURAL BOTANY.
Illustrated. Second Edition. Cr. Svo.
4*. 6d.

Power (J. O'Connor). THE MAKING
OF AN ORATOR. Cr. Svo. 6s.

Pradeau (Q.). A KKY TO THE TIME
ALLUSIONS IN THE DIVINE
COMEDY. With a Dial. Small quarto,
y. 6d.

Prance (Q.). See Half-Crown Library.

Prescott (O. L.). ABOUT MUSIC, AND
WHAT IT IS MADE OF. Cr. Svo.
3*. 6d. net.

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3

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34

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Svo. 6s. See also Strand Novels.

Waltz (E. C.). THE ANCIENT LAND-
MARK : A Kentucky Romance. Cr. Svo.
6s.

Watson (H. B. Marriott). ALARUMS
AND EXCURSIONS. Cr. Svo. 6s.

CAPTAIN FORTUNE. Third Edition.

TWISTED EGLANTINE. With 8 Illus-
trations by FRANK CRAIG. Third Edition.

THE HIGH 'TOBY. With a Frontispiece.

Third Edition. Cr. Svo. 6s.

See also Strand Novels.
Wells (H. G.). THE SEA LADY. Cr.

Svo. 6s.
Weyman (Stanley), Author of ' A Gentleman

of France.' UNDER THE RED ROBE.

With Illustrations by R. C. WOODVILLE.

Twentieth Edition. Cr. Svo. 6s.
White (Stewart E.), Author of ' The Blazed

Trail.1 CONJUROR'S HOUSli. A

Romance of the Free Trail. Second Edition.

Cr. Svo. 6s.
White (Percy). THE SYSTEM. Third

Edition. Cr. Svo. 6s.
THE PATIENT MAN. Second Edition.

Cr. Svo. 6s.
Williamson (Mrs. C. N.), Author of 'The

Barnstormers.' THE ADVENTURE

OF PRINCESS SYLVIA. Second Edi-

(ion. Cr. Svo. js. 6d.

THE WOMAN WHO DARED. Cr. Svo. 6s.
THE SEA COULD TELL. Second Edition.

Cr. Svo. 6s.
THE CASTLE OF THE SHADOWS.

Third Edition. Cr. Svo. 6s.
PAPA. Cr. Svo. 6s.
Williamson (C. N. and A. M.). THE

LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR : Being the

Romance of a Motor Car. Illustrated.

Fifteenth Edition. Cr. Svo. 6s.
THE PRINCESS PASSES. Illustrated.

Seventh Edition, Cr. Svo. 6s.
MY FRIEND THE CHAUFFEUR. With

16 Illustrations. Seventh Edition. Cr.

Svo. 6s.
LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER.

Si.it/i Edit ion. Cr. Svo. 6s.
Wyllarde (DoU), Author of 'Uriah the

Hittite.' THE PATHWAY OF THE

PIONEER. Fourth Edition. Cr.Svo. 6s.

FICTION

37

Methuen's Shilling Novels

Cr. 8vo. Cloth, \s. net.

Balfour (Andrew). VENGEANCE

MINE.
TO ARMS.
Baring-Gould (S.). MRS. CURGENVEN

OF CURGENVEN.
DOMITIA.
THE FROBISHERS.
Barlow (Jane), Author of 'Irish Idylls.

FROM THE EAST UNTO THE

WEST.

A CREEL OF IRISH STORIES.
THE FOUNDING OF FORTUNES.
Barr (Robert). THE VICTORS.
Bartram (George). THIRTEEN EVEN-

Benson' (K. F.), Author of 'Dodo.' THE

Bowles (Q. Stewart). A STRETCH OFF

THE LAND.

Brooke (Emma). THE POET'S CHILD.
Bullock (Shan P.). THE BARRYS.
THE CHARMER.
THE SQUIREEN.
THE RED LEAGUERS.
Burton (J. Bloundelle).

SALT SEAS.
THE CLASH OF ARMS.
DENOUNCED.
FORTUNE'S MY FOE.
Capes (Bernard). AT A WINTER'S

FIRE.
Chesney (Weatherby).

RING.

THE BRANDED PRINCE.
THE FOUNDERED GALLEON.
JOHN TOPP.
Clifford (Mrs. W. K.).

SUMMER.
Collingwood (Harry).

OF THE 'JULIET.'
Cornford (L. Cope). SONS OF ADVER-

SITY
Crane (Stephen). WOUNDS IN THE

RAIN
Denny (C. E.). THE ROMANCE OF

UPFOLD MANOR.
Dickson (Harris). THE BLACK WOLF'S

Dickinson' (Evelyn). THE SIN OF
ANGELS,

ACROSS THE

THE BAPTIST

A FLASH OF
THE DOCTOR

Duncan (Sara J.). «THE POOL IN THE

DESERT.

A VOYAGE OF CONSOLATION.
Embree (C. F.). A HEART OF FLAME.
Fenn (Q. Manville). AN ELECTRIC

SPARK.
Findlater (Jane H.). A DAUGHTER OF

STRIFE.

Findlater (Mary). OVER THE HILLS.
Forrest (R. E.). THE SWORD OF

AZRAEL.

Francis (M. E.). MISS ERIN.
Gallon (Tom). RICKERHY'S FOLLY.
Gerard (Dorothea). THINGS THAT

HAVE HAPPENED.
GHchrist(R. Murray). WILLOWBRAKE.
Glanville (Ernest). THE DESPATCH

RIDER.

THE LOST REGIMENT.
THE KLOOF BRIDE.
THE INCA'S TREASURE.
Gordon (J alien). MRS. CLYDE.
WORLD'S PEOPLE.
Goss (C. P.). THE REDEMPTION OF

DAVID CORSON.
Gray (E. M 'Queen). MY STEWARD-

SHIP.

Hales (A. G.). JAIR THE APOSTATE.
Hamilton (Lord Ernest). MARY HAMIL-
TON.
Harrison (Mrs. Burton). A PRINCESS

OF THE HILLS. Illustrated.
Hooper (I.). THE SINGER OF MARLY.
Hough (Emerson). THE MISSISSIPPI

BUBBLE.
•Iota' (Mrs. Caffyn). ANNE MAULE-

VERER.
Jepson (Edgar). KEEPERS OF THE

PEOPLE.
Kelly (Florence Finch). WITH HOOPS

OF STEEL.

Lawless (Hon. Emily). MAELCHO.
Linden (Annie). A WOMAN OF SENTI.

MENT,

Lorlmer (Norma). JOSIAH'S WIFE.
Lush (Charles K.). THE AUTOCRATS.
Macdonell (Anne). THE STORY OF

TERESA.

Macgrath (Harold). THE PUPPEl1
CROWN-

MESSRS. METHUEN'S CATALOGUE

Mackie (Pauline Bradford). THE VOICE
IN THE DESERT.

Marsh (Richard). THE SEEN AND
THE UNSEEN.

GARNERED.

A METAMORPHOSIS.

MARVELS AND MYSTERIES.

BOTH SIDES OF THE VEIL.

Mayall (J. W.). THE CYNIC AND THE
SYREN.

Monkhouse (Allan). LOVE IN A LIFE.

Moore (Arthur). THE KNIGHT PUNC-
TILIOUS.

Nesbit (Mrs. Bland). THE LITERARY
SENSE

Norris(W. E.). AN OCTAVE.

01iphant(Mrs.). THE LADY'S WALK.

SIR ROBERT'S FORTUNE.

THE TWO MARY'S.

Penny (Mrs. Frank). A MIXED MAR-
AGE.

Phillpotts (Eden). THE STRIKING
HOURS.

FANCY FREE.

Pryce (Richard). TIME AND THE
WOMAN.

Randall (J.). AUNT BETHIA'S BUTTON.

Raymond (Walter). FORTUNE'S DAR-
LING.

Rayner (Olive Pratt). ROSALBA.

Rhys (Grace). THE DIVERTED VILL-
AGE.

Rickert (Edith). OUT OF THE CYPRESS

SWAMP.

Roberton(M. H.). A GALLANT QUAKER.
Saunders (Marshall). ROSE A CHAR-

LITTE.
Sergeant (Adeline). ACCUSED AND

ACCUSER.

BARBARA'S MONEY.
THE ENTHUSIAST.
A GREAT LADY.
THE LOVE THAT OVERCAME.
THE MASTER OF BEECHWOOD.
UNDER SUSPICION.
THE YELLOW DIAMOND.
Shannon (W. F.). JIM TWELVES.
Strain (E. H.). ELMSLIE'S DRAG NET.
Stringer (Arthur). THE SILVER POPPY.
Stuart (Esme). CHRIST ALLA.
Sutherland (Duchess of). ONE HOUR

AND THE NEXT.

Swan (Annie). LOVE GROWN COLD.
Swift (Benjamin). SORDON.
Tanqueray (Mrs. B. M.). THE ROYAL

QUAKER.
Trafford-Taunton (Mrs. E.W.). SILENT

DOMINION.

Upward (Allen). ATHELSTANE FORD.
Waineman (Paul). A HEROINE FROM

FINLAND.
Watson (H. B. Marriott). THE SKIRTS

OF HAPPY CHANCE.
'Zack.1 TALES OF DUNSTABLE WEIR.

Books for Boys and Girls

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THE GETTING WELL OF DOROTHY. By Mrs.
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THK ICELANDER'S SWORD. By S. Baring-
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ONLY A GUARD-ROOM DOG. By Edith E.
Cuthell.

THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By Harry
Collingwood.

LITTLE PETER. By Lucas Malet. Second
Edition.

MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By W.
Clark Russell. Third Editiuti.

THE SECRET OF MADAMR DE MONLUC. By

the Author of " Mdlle. Mori."
SYD BELTON : Or, the Boy who would not go

to Sea. By G. Manville Fenn.
THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. Molesworth.
A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. Meade.

Second Edition.

HEPSY GIPSY. By L. T. Meade. 2*. 6d.
THE HONOURABLE Miss. By L. T. Meade.

Second Edition.
THERE WAS ONCE A PRINCE. By Mrs. M. E.

Mann.
WHKN ARNOLD COMES HOME. By Mrs. M. E.

Mann.

THE THREB MUSKETEERS. With a long
Introduction by Andrew Lang. Double
volume.

THK PRINCE OP THIEVES. Second Edition.

RODIN HOOD. A Sequel to the above.

THE CORSICAN BROTHERS.

GEORGES.

The Novels of Alexandre Dumas

Price 6d. Double Volumes, is.

CROP-EARED JACQUOT; JANE; Etc.

TWENTY YEARS AFTER. Double volume^

AMAURY.

THE CASTLB OF EPPSTEIN.

THE SNOWBALL, and SULTANETTA.

CECILE ; OR, TUB WEDDING GOWN.

ACTK.

FICTION

39

THE BLACK TULIP.

THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE.

Part i. Louise de la Valliere. Double

Volume.
Part ir. The Man in the Iron Mask.

Double Volume.
THE CONVICT'S SON.
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volume.

PAULINE; MURAT; AND PASCAL BRUNO.
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GABRIEL LAMBERT.
CATHERINE BLUM.
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volume.
SYLVANDIRE.
THB FENCING MASTER.
THE REMINISCENCES OF ANTONY.
CONSCIENCE.
PERE LA RUINE.
HENRI OF NAVARRE. The second part of

Queen Margot.
THE GREAT MASSACRE. The first part of

Queen Margot.
THE WILD DUCK SHOOTER.

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THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Illustrated in
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THE PRINCE OP THIEVBS. Illustrated in

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THE WOLF-LEADER. Illustrated in Colour

by Frank Adams, is. 6it.
GEORGES, Illustrated in Colour by Munro Orr.

2S.

TWENTY YEARS AFTER. Illustrated in Colour
by Frank Adams, y.

AMAURV. Illustrated in Colour by Gordon
Browne, is.

THE SNOWBALL, and SULTANETTA. Illus-
trated in Colour by Frank Adams, as.

THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE. Illustrated in
Colour by Frank Adams.

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ACTE. Illustrated in Colour by Gordon
Browne, is. 6d.

CECILE ; OR, THE WEDDING GOWN. Illus-
trated in Colour by D. Murray Smith.
is. 6rf.

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN PAMPHILE
Illustrated in Colour by Frank Adams.
is. 6d.

Methuen's Sixpenny Books

Austen (Jane). PRIDE AND PRE-
JUDICE.

Bagot (Richard). A ROMAN MYSTERY.

Balfour (Andrew). BY STROKE OF
SWORD.

Baring-Gould (S.). FURZE BLOOM.

CHEAP JACK ZITA.

KITTY ALONE.

URITH.

THE BROOM SQUIRE.

IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA.

NOEMI.

A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES. Illustrated.

LITTLE TU'PENNY.

Barr (Robert). JENNIE BAXTER,

JOURNALIST.

IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS.
THE COUNTESS TEKLA.
THE MUTABLE MANY.
Benson (E. P.). DODO.
Bronte (Charlotte). SHIRLEY.
Brownell (C. L.). THE HEART OF

JAPAN.

Burton (J. Bloundelle). ACROSS THE

SALT SEAS.
Caff yn (Mrs)., ('Iota'). ANNE MAULE-

VERER.
*Capes (Bernard). THE LAKE OF

WINE.
Clifford (Mrs. W. K.). A FLASH OF

SUMMER.

MRS. KEITH'S CRIME.
Connell (F. Norreys). THE NIGGER

KNIGHTS.
Corbett (Julian). A BUSINESS IN

GREAT WATERS.
Croker (Mrs. B. M.). PEGGY OF THE

BARTONS.
A STATE SECRET.
ANGEL.
JOHANNA.
Dante (Alighieri). THE VISION OF

DANTE (GARY).
Doyle (A. Conan). ROUND THE RED

LAMP.
Duncan (Sara Jeannette). A VOYAGE

OF CONSOLATION.
THOSE DELIGHTFUL AMERICANS.

MESSRS. METIIUEN'S CATALOGUE

Eliot (George). THE MILL ON THE

FLOSS.
Flndlater (Jane H.). THE GREEN

GRAVES OF RALGOWRIE.
Gallon (Tom). RICKERBY'S FOLLY.
Qaskell (Mrs.). CRANFORD.
MARY BARTON.
NORTH AND SOUTH.
Gerard (Dorothea). HOLY MATRI-
MONY.

THE CONQUEST OF LONDON.
MADE OF MONEY.
Gissing (George). THE TOWN TRAVEL-

LER.

THE CROWN OF LIFE.
Glanville (Ernest). THE INCA'S

TREASURE.
THE KLOOF BRIDE.
Gleig (Charles). BUNTER'S CRUISE.
Grimm (The Brothers). GRIMM'S

FAIRY TALES. Illustrated.
Hope (Anthony). A MAN OF MARK.
A CHANGE OF AIR.
THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT

ANTONIO.
PHROSO.

THE DOLLY DIALOGUES.
Hornung (E. W.). DEAD MEN TELL

NO TALES.
lng--aham (J. H.). THE THRONE OF

DAVID.
LeQueux(W.). THE HUNCHBACK OF

WESTMINSTER.
Levett- Yeats (S. K.). THE TRAITOR'S

WAY.

Linton (E. Lynn). THE TRUE HIS-
TORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON.
Lyall(Edna). DERRICK VAUGHAN.
Malet(Lucas). THE CARISSIMA.
A COUNSEL OF PERFECTION.
Mann (Mrs. M. E.). MRS. PETER

HOWARD.
A LOST ESTATE.
THE CEDAR STAR.
Marchmont (A. W.). MISER HOAD-

LEY'g SECRET.
A MOMENT'S ERROR.
Marryat (Captain). PETER SIMPLE.
JACOB FAITHFUL.
Marsh (Richard). THE TWICKENHAM

PEERAGE.
THE GODDESS.
THE JOSS.

Mason (A. E. W.). CLEMENTINA.
Mathers (Helen). HONEY.
GRIFF OF GRIFFITHSCOURT.

SAM'S SWEETHEART.

Meade (Mrs. L. T.). DRIFT.

Mltford (Bertram). THE SIGN OF THE

SPIDER.

Montresor(r. P.). THE ALIEN.
Moore (Arthur). THE GAY DECEIVERS.
Morrison (Arthur). THE HOLE IN

THE WALL.

Nesbit(E.). THE RED HOUSE.
Norrls(W. E.). HIS GRACE.
GILES INGILBY.
THE CREDIT OF THE COUNTY.
LORD LEONARD.
MATTHEW AUSTIN.
CLARISSA FURIOSA.
Oliphant (Mrs.). THE LADY'S WALK.
SIR ROBERT'S FORTUNE.
THE PRODIGALS.
Oppenhelm (E. Phillips). MASTER OF

MEN.
Parker (Gilbert). THE POMP OF THE

LAVILETTES.

WHEN VALMOND CAME TO PONTI AC.
THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD.
Pemberton (Max). THE FOOTSTEPS

OF A THRONE.
I CROWN THEE KING.
Phillpotts (Eden). THE HUMAN BOY.
CHILDREN OF THE MIST.
Ridge (W. Pett). A SON OF THE STATE.

LOST PROPKRTY.

<;KORGE AND THE GENERAL.

Russell (W. Clark). A MARRIAGE AT

SEA.

ABANDONED.

MY DANISH SWEETHEART.
Sergeant (Adeline). THE MASTER OF

BEECHWOOD.
BARBARA'S MONEY.
THE YELLOW DIAMOND.
Surtees (R. S.). HANDLEY CROSS.

Illustrated.
MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR.

Illustrated.

ASK MAMMA. Illustrated.
Valentine (Major E. S.). VELDT AND

LAAGER.

Walford (Mrs. L. B.). MR. SMITH.
THE BABY'S GRANDMOTHER.
Wallace (General Lew). BEN-HUR.
THE FAIR G 'IX
Watson (H. B. Marriot). THE ADVEN-

TURKRS

Weekes(A. B.). PRISONERS OF WAR.
Wells (H.G.). THESTOLEN BACILLUS.
White (Percy). A PASSIONATE

PILGRIM.

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